This Place That Contains My Spirit

The Cascadian black metal movement, which was popularized close to a decade ago by Wolves in Throne Room’s Diadem of 12 Stars, has rarely seen much growth outside of the area for which the movement is named. There are a few bands from the outside that share the warm Cascadian tones, the region’s love for nature and the genre’s penchant for long winded songs of the emotional variety. So, honestly, it should be no surprise that a mere 1200 miles away, on the opposite side of the Rocky Mountains, the Cascadian movement has struck a chord with three lads from Black Hills, South Dakota, who formed Woman is the Earth in 2007.

As seems to be standard with this specific style of black metal, repeated listens are in order to fully embrace the depth of the band’s performance. Presented are four songs that span nearly fifty minutes and certainly seem to be kindred spirits with bands such as Weakling, Wolves in the Throne Room and Alda. The band’s sophomore album, This Place That Contains My Spirit, was originally released independently in 2012, but in April of 2014 Eisenwald Tonschmiede remastered and reissued the album worldwide.

The album is full of exceptional and intricate tremolo riffing at varying tempos, from the sullen and serene during “Sage Moon” to the blistering arpeggios on the album’s title track. The guitars are definitely the focus of the album, and rightfully so, as they are impressive and well thought out patterns and motifs are present throughout. Even though the guitar work is captivating, it doesn’t hurt that the guitars are blatantly pushed forward in the mix, so far forward in fact that they drown just about everything else out, except for the drums, but we’ll get there. The band’s drawn out and lengthy songwriting approach consists mostly of swirling pieces of black metal touching certain emotional facets and then moving on. Like the slowly swelling surge of post-rock atmospherics during the introduction to “Glow Beyond the Ridgeline” which builds into a rather frenetic chunk of fast paced black metal with a prominent keyboard backing. The furious black metal riffs then play off of each other, slowly moving into a different trem pattern that is not wholly unlike the one that came before it. After all of the riff changes and careful structuring, the band hits the brakes and then dwells in ethereal ambiance for the remainder of the track, which is a rather fitting way to end the album. Each track follows this same type of pattern: gentle lead up, carefully selected trem riffs cycling all over the fret board, some type of post-rock-isms, gentle lead out. Well, it’s not really that simple, but damn close.

Each track is similar in that the band utilizes some small portion of the post-rock sensibilities of Deafheaven and all of the self-proclaimed shoegazer styled black metal bands… you know, the kind of artsy fartsy stuff that all of those Cascadian natives eat up. Thankfully, Woman is the Earth really keeps these tendencies to a minimum; some folksy choral chanting here, a few acoustic interludes there. Really, we shouldn’t expect the rural breeding of South Dakota to be THAT affected by the current trend of black metal. The post-rock accoutrement here doesn’t really take anything away from the album, and really help cement the band as disciples of the Cascadian path.

The biggest flaw on This Place That Contains My Spirit is the production (even with the remaster, mind you). The guitars, which are great, are pushed way to the front of the mix. The vocals, bass and drums take a back seat. That’s not a terrible thing as far as the drums go, because this album has one of the worst drum sounds I’ve heard in a long time. Everything sounds like it was muffled and muted, as if the bass drum was wrapped in a wet towel and the drummer used some type of fluffy pom-pom instead of drum sticks, but then after it was recorded they realized that the drums were too quiet so they turned up the volume. It’s loud, yet it’s muffled and sounds flat, and it is irritating as all hell. The cymbals are extremely tinny and all over the place. It sounds like the drum patterns are solid, especially the double bass runs, but that damn production kills anything viable. The vocals, which are way to rear of the mix, act almost like an atmospheric trimming, much the same way bands use keyboards. The vocals are basically tortured howls and groans that sound distant and dissonant and never manage to fully take your focus.

Jokes and qualms aside, Woman is the Earth does have some great moments during this album. The band’s continuous firing of trem riffs which cycle down the fret board coupled with the atmospheric touches and slight post rock-isms make for a rather engaging listen, if you can get past that drum sound. I’d like to hear what the band has in store on future releases, because I really like what they’re getting at here. This Place That Contains My Spirit is a rather solid atmospheric black metal album with more than a leaning towards the Cascadian side of things and a dash of hipster post rock, all from the lovely land of South Dakota.

Written for The Metal Observer:
http://www.metal-observer.com/