Consistent but effortless
Crossing country borders, Simon from Sweden and SL from Russia created their collaboration Wall of the Eyeless in 2011. That same year their debut demo Through Emptiness garnered a few positive reviews, to be followed in 2013 by the Wimfolsfestta demo.
From the hands and throats of the Swedish drummer and the Russian string-handler slash vocalist unfolds dream-like melodies veiled in thick shrouds of colourless distortion, only occassionally letting anything shine through. Every so often a void in their bleak deluge is divulged, laying bare the inner workings of the duo.
Throughout the Wimfolsfestta demo the duality between their inherent styles rears its head once in a while, the best example of which being on Revulsion Fever where a sombre folk-like interruption is overtaken by one of the band's best and most original riffs. Another example, Longest Winter's relentless blasts, reveals that this sort of bipolar songwriting is one of the collaboration's main strengths.
From the hands and throats of the Swedish drummer and the Russian string-handler slash vocalist unfolds dream-like melodies veiled in thick shrouds of colourless distortion, only occassionally letting anything shine through. Every so often a void in their bleak deluge is divulged, laying bare the inner workings of the duo.
Throughout the Wimfolsfestta demo the duality between their inherent styles rears its head once in a while, the best example of which being on Revulsion Fever where a sombre folk-like interruption is overtaken by one of the band's best and most original riffs. Another example, Longest Winter's relentless blasts, reveals that this sort of bipolar songwriting is one of the collaboration's main strengths.
"The warm guitar sound constrasts with the cold nature of their style,"
Atmosphere a-plenty, - such as in the ponderous string-bends during the melodic introductory track Flicker - Wall of the Eyeless know their strengths and play the hand they are given. The warm guitar sound constrasts with the cold nature of their style, but however skillfully they bend their instruments to their will it all just feels a bit soulless.
Wimfolsfestta is effortless in the sense that it misses some boldness. SL's growls are too much on the hollow side, and while their musical efforts are at the very least highly consistent throughout the demo, it is a consistency that in the longer run comes off as shy and unadventurous.
Agalloch arguably spawned heaps of the type of atmospheric "post" metal bands that Wall of the Eyeless sort of belong to. The duo's most pure-bred death metal offerings are genuinely well-crafted, but the drawn out experimental parts mostly come off as lazy attempts at try-hard melodies to jazz up their compositions. These aspects, however, are poorly written and executed, but first and foremost poorly implemented in a soundscape that is otherwise bordering on solid.
Wimfolsfestta is effortless in the sense that it misses some boldness. SL's growls are too much on the hollow side, and while their musical efforts are at the very least highly consistent throughout the demo, it is a consistency that in the longer run comes off as shy and unadventurous.
Agalloch arguably spawned heaps of the type of atmospheric "post" metal bands that Wall of the Eyeless sort of belong to. The duo's most pure-bred death metal offerings are genuinely well-crafted, but the drawn out experimental parts mostly come off as lazy attempts at try-hard melodies to jazz up their compositions. These aspects, however, are poorly written and executed, but first and foremost poorly implemented in a soundscape that is otherwise bordering on solid.
6/10
Released in 2013 independently
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