Withered Shades

I'm getting really pissed by seeing real ARTISTS like Ophis being overlooked while some monotonous and uninventive bands are getting all the credit in this genre. To those who search for true and honest art, Ophis is the real deal. Apart from the fact that they can produce riffs equal in inspiration and quality to My Dying Bride's without cloning them to the least, they bear and exhale such a misanthropic depth that clearly humiliates all the pretentious pseudo -depressive wannabes out there.

What Ophis do is real music, in every single record. Their capability of interesting, perfectly structured and climaxing songwriting is tremendous. Their devotion to art, honest and inspiring. No tricky productions, no pseudo sophisticated dissonance and disharmony to sound evil, just pure heavy music with character and originality. Also, in Ophis doom/death, both doom and death are there. And I say that because I've noticed that some mid-tempo melo-pop with guitars has turned to be considered doom/death recently. So to make things clear, what you must expect from Ophis is pure and honest, old school doom / death.

So after a killer EP and an equally great debut, it comes this monolith, which till now is maybe their darkest and most depressive creation, musically and lyrically. ''Withered shades'' is an absolute, almost theatrical masterpiece and my personal blackest voyage since Bride's ''The angel and the dark river'' and since it has already been almost a decade from its release, I'm now in the position to consider it a classic. Wrapped in an ebony, claustrophobic, and ultra- heavy production, the album begins with the 14 minute monumental epic that hears to the perfectly suitable name ''The Halls Of Sorrow''. And indeed, the gates of hell have been opened and we enter the reception Halls... A solitary, greaving lead guitar melody begins, to be soon accompanied by a second lead guitar in different tone. Such parts with combined lead guitars is one of the most beautiful and appealing aspects in the music of Ophis. While you may say that this is a simple old school formula, the truth is that only titanic bands with high compositional perception like Ophis, know where, when and how to use it efficiently.

After a short repetition of the first riff, the full band kicks in with crushing heaviness. The deep, expressive and heartfelt voice of Philipp Kruppa leads the way down to a path of despair and desolation followed by crawling, top class weeping melodies. The obvious passion of the performance and the sincere intention to state and express a massive feeling of nihilism and desperation work resolutely for the listener, by grabbing and baptizing in bleakness every single cell of his body- and this is what is going on in the whole album.

Around 5.20, things speed up to a ferocious blast of death metal mastery and then...silence. The build up that starts to take place now and is introduced with a marching snare beat, is one of the greatest build ups in the history of doom. Drum beat comes first, then a funereal, soul piercing clean guitar riff, then the vocals, some creeping bass melodies to build more tension, and then THE climax of mayhem and asphyxiation takes place OVER THE TAPESTRY OF ROTTEN CORPSES (as the lyrics also suggest). The riffage from here and then, though it's a heavy rendition of the clean part, is beyond description. The convey of emotions is so overwhelming and huge that any sensitive soul should shatter to pieces. Τhe main riff of the track returns retrospectively at the end to redeem you from the emotional leveling you have experienced.

While you've been stunned after what you've just witnessed, the clean guitar intro of ''Suffering Is a virtue'' kicks in. That's another unbelievably inventive track with incredible alternations from low to high pitched vocals. The vocal delivery of Philipp Kruppa serves as an extra instrument with several tonal variations (Here there are some extra killer vocals by Seuche from Fäulnis). The riffs once again prove the band's immense inventiveness and are here to haunt the listener's mind forever. TRAPPED IN A GRAVE, state the vocals and from this moment to the end of the album, the listener sinks totally in the poisonous world of Ophis as he receives a burst of varied and masterfully crafted pieces of art.

The drumming in the album is extraordinary. The clean guitar parts, emotional and essential. I will not describe each track because what happens inside these five lengthy ambitious beasts can't fit into a review. The only sure thing is that every track, despite it's overall greatness, it always consists of a specific part or climax which you are eagerly waiting for, to witness the ultimate sonic experience of musical delight. If you consider your self a serious doom/death fan, if you have high expectations from the bands and you are not compliant with mediocre compositions and uninventive riffs, go get this album along with the whole Ophis discography immediately and support this honest and talented band to the fullest. We need to support bands like this so the music keeps being real. Thank you, Ophis.

As time goes by, the quest for the unique in music exponentially grows in futility, and one question is asked: "maybe instead of looking for originality in music we should just appreciate those all they do is the same-old, yet do it awesomely? Or is it me, blabbering again, having absolutely no idea how to open this darn review?"

Anyway, Ophis is just that kind of a band – just as the homophone suggests, "routine" would be the name of the game and an immediate association that rises in all things concerning the album in question – tempo and feel-wise, the premise "Withered Shades" mostly dwells in is a moderate, quasi-gracious and self-important stride (the almost-exclusive use of major scales significantly contributes to that "majestic" feel), with a cue emphasis on basic, melodic musical approach and rather rudimentary thematic resolutions with catchy hooks and harmonies to please your ear, but without grabbing your attention all too much really. Granted, if the clean vocals from Mourning Beloveth's, say, "A Disease for Ages" would be removed and both albums would be played back to back – one would really find it difficult to tell the two bands apart.

To finally kick the actual review off, I'd like to deviate from the common procedure by addressing the sound and production of the album first, since it would be the first thing to captivate your attention upon hearing this album as well – not only it's highly crisp and clear, you'd be overwhelmed by the ferocity it comes at you from the very get go. Imagine having an enormous frying pan swung at your face, hitting it in several different places simultaneously as it lands – same goes with this album. The guitar tone is so fat and omnipresent you might think you had a surround sound system installed in your head that you weren't aware of, but the more surprising thing is that the dominance of the guitars doesn't come in any rate at the expense of the audibility of the guitar parts and even those of other instruments – this album is among the few metal albums with a clear and audible bass guitar on it, for example. Truth to be told – the production of this album is so impressive I think it should be heralded as the new industry standard, nothing more and nothing less.

As far as the music goes, though, the most suitable qualitative way to describe it is that it delivers. Apart from the lack of identity issues addressed above, the potential enjoyment of this album, whilst present in abundance, is fairly limited. I won't try to sketch an in-depth parallel between "Withered Shades" and metalcore in order not to be misconstrued, but the two are indeed similar in essence (and there are some pig squeals on the beginning of "Halo of Worms", wink wink), that is – in relying more on quick-fixes and not a deep and comprehensive listening and evaluation. In addition to the highly competent input by every single band member, one can tell that the fellows in Ophis are no amateur as far as song-writing goes, and are well-versed in how to write a lengthy tune without losing its cohesiveness at midway on one hand while avoiding from using 10-bar-long droning power chord fills, and what it needs to saturate the song while maintaining the overall feel (i.e. where an how to put a blast-beaten part to keep you awake without breaching out of the somber mood). The main issue with all these is that the resultant comes out all too soothing and polished on the verge of being obnoxious, and devoid of any curveballs that you might want to have thrown at you that could have propelled this album from being good to something truly special.


Overall: This album could have been great, if only there were not as many albums that are just as great already. If a scale is to be drawn with art at one end and blind trend-hopping at the other – Ophis are located somewhere in between, not really ripping-off any doom/death band in particular, but also not sounding too different than any of them. You really want to hear this one, though, especially if you just started getting into doom/death recently – most likely you'd have quite a kick off it any way.

[Favorite bit: Necrotic Reflection]

Solitude productions are not exactly a picky label. As a rule they've just picked up every single funeral doom and melodic death doom band they can find, regardless of quality. Of late they've added any old stoner doom acts to the mix too, but still, they're a very genre specific label which is what makes the presence of band like Ophis all the more surprising and enjoyable. Withered Shades is by and large traditional death/doom, it isn’t ultra slow, and it isn’t pretty; it’s mean, hateful and immense. It isn't afraid of getting a little faster and bludgeoning us with riffs, it isn't afraid of not being 'sublime' or 'beautiful'; it's ugly as sin and full of bile, and it relishes it's existence in this form.

The riffing on here cannot be understated; it's super heavy, bleak and oppressive as all hell. This is what a good doom riff is, it's not just having lots of sustain and blazing power chords, these riffs move with momentum, they have enough notes in them to be exciting and are interesting to listen to as they go, not just for setting mood, but just for the love of a great riff. The music certainly has it passages of melody ala Hooded Menace or Darkness Death Doom era Runemagick, as well as a couple of death metal sections, but mostly this album is all about crushingly meaty riffs that would make dinosaurs run for the hills. Closest comparisons to these riffs would be Coffins or other super heavy death doom acts, but they're fun, headbangable and far from derivative. The fairly frequent changes to more upbeat and rocking riffing gives a nice counter balance to the sheer heaviness that makes up most of this release, and makes the album a lot more fun and exciting for all involved.

The melodic work is the other draw point to the music on offer here, Ophis are perfectly aware that melody can be used for reasons other than just being pretty, instead these leads add a sense of decrepitude to the otherwise powerful music, and vary from the more traditional beautiful and epic sounds to the off kilter and downright unsettling. The band gives themselves a lot of time to explore all facets of their sound so everything is given suitable amounts of focus over the course of the album.

The production here is mostly good, the guitars are fuzzy and distorted and mixed with a lot of volume, making them the clear focus. This does leave the drumming a little bit more restrained than I'd hope for, but the sound is good and suitably grand in scale. The vocals are mostly mixed up nice and high too, with the quality growls becoming a fitting narration over the destruction and misery the band exudes. The exception are the guest vocals on "Suffering is a Virtue", which are lowered shrieks which float nicely in the background, which considering the Varg-like delivery, it's probably a safer choice than having the blaring over the top.

These songs are very long, and while the band can string together riffs well, switching between crushing sections, melodies and death metal parts frequently without ever sounding stop-start, they can get a little long winded. They're well written with riffs returning when needed and major shifts in tone or tempo called upon when the crawl starts to get tedious, but the constant barrage of 10 minute+ songs gets to be a bit of a chore. The whole album clocks in at a monstrous 64 minutes with only 5 tracks, which most would say isn't too long for doom, but it makes the whole album quite a task to listen to in full with total focus.

Withered Shades is probably the second best doom album this year, just beaten out by Hooded Menace's second full length. This is a far more morbid and underground affair, and evokes a more devastating feeling, but it is a bit overlong, and for all the variations thrown in, you are still getting a good 50 minutes of thunderous booming riffs, which is probably a bit overkill. I've heard mixed things about the debut, but Ophis have basically gotten everything right here, and are definitely a band to check out for any doom fan.