Grue / Word of Unmaking "Lo, the Curse of the World Cometh" Split

Here is an interesting release between two unknown bands to date. Grue's mystical anti-humanism black metal inspired by Sargeist, Profanatica, H.P. Lovecraft and Word of Unmaking's haunting and frozen funeral doom.

While Grue bring in their luggage four themes (which one counts as an interlude), Word of Unmaking bring us just one theme but a theme about 15 minutes long. I must say that at a first audition Grue's tracks didn't left me very fascinated, but the more i listen to the tracks the more they seemed to grow in me. My attention was absolutely focused on "Ascending the Necrolith" that revealed to be a great and solid track. The turn that this track takes around the mark of 2:50 is absolutely wonderful. Very epic, yet dramatic. It isn't a complex track, full of tricks and artifices. It's simple, effective and filled with an ambitious anger that suddenly turns into sorrow.

After this we get more of that melancholic feeling invading our soul with the interlude "Lament of the Spheres", where we can hear such instruments like a cello that really bring that gloomy atmosphere to this track. "In the House of Nemesis" and the ending track "Across Black Seas of Infinity" are other fine examples of what Grue are capable of. Grue's black metal finally convinced me. It's filled with real and honest emotions, charged with a raw anger that flow naturally to the surface of the skin.

On the other hand we have doom. Gloomy, cold and haunting doom. Word of Unmaking track, "Tombs Our Only Monuments" is full of a energy so negative that during those fifteen minutes that lasts this track, the only thoughts that cross our mind are only death, desolation and loneliness. Like a funeral march, this track takes us through the tortuous paths of doom metal. Slow decaying riffs meander through a sinister and misty voice that whispers among old tombstones. This track has a lot of changes over the last fifteen minutes that it lasts, having enough room for even that same cello lend an air of its grace. In the end it seemed to me that "Tombs Our Only Monuments" still has some loose ends to remedy, perhaps in a future record ... who knows. It started in a good way...

Two very opposite directions, yet nice proposals, in this independent/self release split tape ($5 shipped in the States, and/or downloadable for free from Bandcamp).

Grue | WOU