Wowahwala

Although I'm a huge, rabid fan of this band's first album, I'm trying hard not to compare this one to it and instead evaluate Wowohwala on it's own. It's introspective black metal. It reminds me a lot of the band L.O.R.E. but I don't know if anyone else has heard them to understand the comparison.

There's plenty of 'setting the mood' going on here - long intros, acoustic intermissions, and a synth/ambient beginning on the title track. It gives an overall sad, moody feel to the music. Nostalgic even, somehow.

The production is as raw as it gets without being incomprehensible. Guitars are fuzzy, drums sound like knocking on a door and there's tape hiss. It's not distracting, it's not like the worst kind of basement bands where you can't understand what they're even playing, but it's right on the edge. Production is exactly the same as the first album, I can't detect any difference in the production at all. Guitar tune and everything sounds identical.

Vocals are very high pitched. He knows how to hit highs and he doesn't stray outside of what he's good at. It's a classic shriek, if I had to compare it to something I'd say he sounds like a slightly hoarser early Burzum.

The riffs are mid to fast tempo. "Wówakȟaŋ", easily my favorite, opens with a black-n-roll bit that evokes the open prairies, long drives and the 80s... and ends with a rising, triumphant power chord progression that's the highlight of the album. There is a hint of the 'Hollywood Indian' music in the first song and a reprise of the black-n-roll on the last song - but just for a second. A new feature on this release is a very close-in-your-ear drumroll during emotional moments.

Overall you can say the writing hasn't progressed since the first album: the formula of one movement, an interlude and a different movement is still present on all songs. There's an acoustic break midway through all of them, just like before. That's not bad it's just formulaic.

However due to the emphasis on mid-tempo riffs, long intros and ambiance and a long fade-out the overall atmosphere here is melancholy. Due to which it doesn't stand out very much. There's loads of melancholy indie black metal out there setting the mood with lots of fluff... this is just one more on the pile.

It's worth a few listens, especially for the middle track.

Far from being a one-hit wonder with debut album "Wóohitike" which documented the perseverance as well as the suffering of the Oglala Lakota indigenous people in the US Midwest, mystery raw BM act Maȟpíya Lúta shows it means business – and ongoing business at that! – in releasing follow-up album "Wowahwala" in 2023. Like "Wóohitike", "Wowahwala" consists of three long tracks with the last track being the title track as well. Where "Wóohitike" is a harsh work of anger, hatred and pain born of trauma resulting from past centuries of violence and policies pursued by US governments to force indigenous peoples off their lands and rob them of their cultures and traditions, "Wowahwala" is a more melodic creature, slightly more mellow and atmospheric. Buoyant black'n'roll percussion rhythms and beats have a strong presence here, giving the music its robust power and energy. The vocals are as screechy as ever but do not dominate the music, and quiet passages with acoustic stringed instruments now appear.

Opening track "Wacantognaka" establishes the style and mood of the album with often bouncing, even thrilling rhythms and steady beats. The music comes across as quite exuberant in its grinding power and even the vocals seem a bit less pained. Rolling along at nearly 10 minutes, the track undergoes several changes, including a moody, quite bluesy mid-section of clean-toned guitar melody before transforming back into a tsunami wave of noisy scourging tremolo guitar and harsh wailing vocals. "Wówakȟaŋ" starts off with a series of catchy headbanging riffs and rhythms, threatening to turn into a real if very noisy grinding rock'n'roll number. The song turns into a virtual rollercoaster of enjoyable melodies and outbreaks of distinct guitar-drums harmony, all very melodic and atmospheric, that could be hived off into separate songs if Maȟpíya Lúta were interested in travelling a more commercial route to fame and fortune. The most significant part of "Wówakȟaŋ" though is a slow-burning mid-section of pain and lament for loss and the passing of opportunities for poverty, inequality, discrimination and violence to stop that will never come again. The song then turns into an angry tirade that continues nearly all the way to the end.

The title track starts off as a highly atmospheric piece featuring bluesy country guitars and smoky background effects that have a brooding, meditative attitude and give the song a strong folk flavour. The angry BM grind barrage starts up later as an accusation to those who have tried to force the Lakota people in giving up their culture and language. A snippet of AC/DC's famous "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" sneaks into the song at different points as sung chorus and melody! The track continues at leisurely pace as an epic work of rock-out grinding BM with bursts of blast-beat fury, surging guitar melodies and never-ending ranting and screaming before transforming into a quiet and steady acoustic-guitar lament.

All three very lengthy tracks have many unexpected twists and turns of mood, atmosphere and even style, going from all-out noisy harsh raw BM into slower, more melodic atmospheric BM and even into meditative country blues guitar solo. This means they, especially the first two tracks, sound much alike. The title track is a bit more distinct than the other two in featuring some ambient elements at the start and the end. What's undeniable though is the sheer range of emotion, intense and very confronting, expressed in the music even at its jauntiest. It is as if the music and especially the singing are powered by centuries of anger, hate, sorrow, pain and trauma at unimaginable loss and unnecessary violence against the Oglala Lakota people. Taken as a whole, the songs are a solid expression of one act's indigenous awakening and assertion of its people's values, traditions and history, and what they hold dear.