Funeral in a Carpathian Forest

"Funeral in a Carpathian Forest" marks the first release of the Italian one-man project Enchained Wolf and I came across this release while looking through the new arrivals on Bandcamp to find some interesting stuff there. Originally there was supposed to be a CD version of this, but the band told me that ain't happening any time soon which is sad, but the reasons behind that are understandable.

Anyways "Funeral in a Carpathian Forest" delivers some really good black metal in several play styles and moods and shows the potential that this project might have. The sound of the EP is actually pretty good. Sure you got some noises and overdrive here and there, especially on the guitars and vocals, but I think straight black metal wouldn't work without lo-fi, but too much is bad too, so you have to strike a balance here and Enchained Wolf does that pretty well to be honest since all instrument remain enjoyable and even the glimpse note of keys in the background is noticeable.

Musically there are different approaches to each song covering styles in the range of black, thrash, doom and dark metal, which ends up being one genre per song. The album starts with its title track which is a pretty old school black metal song with unholy disharmonic riffing and a very dark feeling to it and is varying between raw aggression and slower moments to build up a descent atmosphere and add some melodic solos to the sound. Afterwards "B.D.S.M." kicks in delivers the rawest and fastest track on the release. The vocals are scratchy as hell and the fast paste riffing and constant pressure of the blasts really push the song forward and make the three minutes feel like one. There are even a lot of thrash influences in the song hidden somewhere in the chaotic madness that the song is. The following "Ison" on the other hand completely removes the speed and aggression and builds upon an acoustic intro with dark almost clean vocals and slowly evolves into an highly emotional, raw and melodic dark metal song. This song is probably my favorite of the EP and dedicated to the artwork artist. "Requiem d'Autunno" gives the EP a very slow and heavy doom metal outro that creates a dark and melancholic feeling without using any vocals. This song is only followed by the two bonus songs, one of the is a piano version of "Ison" and the other one is an old demo version of the title track which aren't that bad either.

The instrument are played pretty well throughout the release and I couldn't find any major failure in them. The guitars are mostly played in a disharmonic and mid to fast paced way, creating a dark and evil spirit and a descent old school vibe while the drums push the songs forward and the bass adds some dark sprinkles here and there. Both, the fast and the slower parts, sound well-conceived and the way the EP is growing into a really emotional, melancholic and even sad piece of music that even receives some background keyboards and samples to help them grow just fits perfectly well into the structure.

And the vocals are showing some serious progression throughout the record as well. Starting with raw and very aggressive screaming that is hiding some melodic moments under the rasping voice, they focus more on the melodic part later on and "Ison" completely breaks with the pattern and uses mainly whispering clean vocals and only a few moments of harsher shrieking. All in all the vocals follow the way the music is going and captures the mood and atmosphere of the songs very well.

To sum this all up: Enchained Wolf delivers a really strong EP that grows with every song and shows some serious potential. The instrumentation and varying vocals fit the emotions and leave the listener in a melancholic void. Starting with old school black metal and letting it evolve into a strong and intense emotional finish just makes me want to hear more of this artist and makes "Funeral in a Carpathian Forest" the strong first release of a young artist.