IN The Woods

Still in the Woods, young band from Berlin founded in 2015, causes furore since its debut album „Rootless tree“. An ambitious songwriting, energetic hip-hop grooves, jazz harmonies and melancholic post rock sounds design this new album.

The surplus of excellent albums being released right now continues with a candidate for the best Blues Rock artist to ever hail from Germany. Henrik Freischlader returns with another superb effort. After his last two powerhouse albums and a stint supporting Layla Zoe and Tommy Schneller you might expect a letdown in quality, but House in the Woods delivers once again…

After the long hiatus of almost 15 years and then the strepitous return in 2016 with the magnificient album Pure, now the Norwegian legends In The Woods…, one of the first bands who used the name "pagan metal" to describe their music, is back with their fifth full-lenght named Cease The Day. Even though that it's difficult to talk about the same band anymore, because now, after the departure of Botteri brothers, the only member from the original line-up is the drummer Anders Kobro. Together with James Fogarty aka Mr. Fog (vocals, guitars, bass and keys), who is now beside Kobro the only regular member since the Pure album, the two with the help of guitarists Bernt Sørensen and Kåre Sletteberg, created an album that, huh, has it's memorable moments…

As hinted at on Omnio, Norway's In The Woods has taken yet another step away from metal. First, they have broken with black metal entirely, and secondly, they have perhaps left the genre altogether in order to create a dark, swirling, heavy rock music all their own. Utilizing many of the same tactics they pioneered on Omnio, such as the use of a full string quartet alongside the band, In the Woods have taken further liberties in their instrumentation: sitars, gongs, drum loops, and keyboard programming, as well as a pedal steel guitar have been incorporated into their sound. On paper it sounds dreadful, in the grooves it is positively seductive and powerful…

Coming off the success of the previous year's Reconciled, the Call returned in 1987 with Into the Woods. The slow-building "I Don't Wanna" is a bit ragged at moments but reaches an impressive sonic swell and Michael Been's vocals are passionate as always. "In the River"'s tone is forlorn, but backed by a solid, smoldering melody and gospel background vocals. A tumbling, percussive beat drives "It Could've Been Mean," a rumination on fate that is simple, yet effective. "Day or Night" probably comes the closest to best capturing the band's usual anthemic style. Much of In the Woods has a darker, more serious feel to it. The somber, introspective nature of the lyrics and the lack of a track with a hook as memorable as the radio hits from Reconciled undoubtedly doomed a further commercial breakthrough. However, Into the Woods is a worthy and challenging artistic follow-up.

Blaine L. Reininger & Mikel Rouse - Colorado Suite & A walk in the woods - Made To Measure Vol. 3&6 (1984)
Avant-garde | EAC AccurateRip / FLAC / LOG, CUE | 403 MB | Album art | MP3 320kbps / 44100Hz | 70:32 | 113 MB
Blaine L. Reininger & Mikel Rouse - Colorado Suite & A walk in the woods - Made To Measure Vol. 3&6 (1984)

Colorado Suite is a colaboration with the one and only Blaine Reininger. Rouse met Reininger while living in Belgium in 1983. Rouse was supporting the release of Tirez Tirez's Story of The Year and Broken Consort's Jade Tiger. Rouse and Reininger hit it off and started work on a mini LP for the Crammed Disc label. This led to a UK/European tour with Blaine as front man and violinist and Rouse manning the keyboards. All of this performed to a trusty Roland sequencer, marking Rouse's (but not Reininger's) first use of sequencing in live performance. Rouse would go on to uss e this idea in his large scale multi-media chamber operas.