Torture Tunes
Vow of Thorns
Farewell to the Sun
This extreme progressive black metal ensemble from Canada explores the high peaks of jazz and the bold experimentation of prog. Just try clapping to the beat of this drummer, I dare you!
Handling the lead agony and guitars is K. Hawthorn, D. Richards on guitar, R. Flower on the five-string fretless doom machine, and, M. Templeton on the drums. Together they form like the Avengers from hell bringing despair and hopelessness to your short and lonely lives!
As we enter into the abyss, the soundtrack plays the first tune, “Meeting on the Astral Plane”. Its ten minutes of pleasurable torture as the music shreds and the vocals painfully spin the tale. In the center is a jazzy little piece that soothes the ache in your bones and gives a short break before burring you alive by the ending. “Great Abomination” is a normal five minute stretch. It leads in with a speedy rhythm with notes that rub against each other like an uncontrollable itch, peeling the flesh from your bones. This one doesn’t slow down or give you any peace.
Enter the Pink Floyd section of the record as “Farewell to the Sun Part I, II, and III” come into play. A progressive arpeggio starts off this triptych as it gradually tempos up. Part I is a macabre, eerie instrumental which is followed by Part II that starts immediately, spilling pain and suffering in its wake. The almost silent breakdown leaves you hanging on for dear death for when the blackness returns, it comes to lead you to your doom. Part Three is the blackest pit that the Bible warns you about.
Vow of Thorns
Farewell to the Sun
(Forest Dweller Inc.)
Written by: Tim Duran
9 out of 10
Leaving you without a thread to hold on to, “Doomed Woods” is a hopeless prophecy of emptiness. Wow! I have never heard a black metal record in its entirety until today. Maybe it’s all the experimentation and the amazing fretless bass, but this disc is rad! Downside is that some of the cuts are clear, or it’s just that I am not used to hearing what goes on in black metal. Upside is the killer fretless bass action! It makes things darker and more ambient. The songs and the vibe are spine chilling and the musicianship is A-OK! Vow of Thorns gets two thumbs up and a huge 9 for offering a “Farewell to the Sun”.
Tim Duran, HMS
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