Review Summary: Listening to Wilderun is like eating the best coffee ice cream you’ve ever tasted but you occasionally bite into coffee chunks that are a little too bitter for your senses.
For those who live outside prog metal circles,
Wilderun have snuggled themselves into the top echelon of what modern prog metal has to offer by releasing four extraordinary albums over the past ten years. I would say someone would have to be living under a metaphorical prog-metal-related rock if they have gone this far without hearing the massive hype that
Wilderun's previous album,
Veil of Imagination had swept up; making it to the top of people's "Best Metal Albums" lists and submerging itself amongst one of the most praised prog metal albums of the previous decade.
Epigone, having both the privilege and the curse of following up such a spectacle of an album has very large boots to fill. The title,
Epigone, being named after "A second-rate imitator or follower, especially of an artist or a philosopher." might be self-aware of the fact that this may stand in the shadow of
Veil of Imagination, or even of the greater established bands that this takes inspiration from. However, what
Wilderun do with this album is equally extraordinary in the metal scene; they for the most part meet the standards they have set by their past albums, all while delivering it in a new, luscious aesthetic style, mastered by an enviable production studio, and experiment with new musical concepts that show that the band is not done innovating their core sound.
Wilderun is known for combining folksy acoustic aesthetics with beautiful, cinematic symphonic arrangements, along with massive sonic dynamics which include extreme melodeath gutturals and loud, distorted guitar riffs. It is for this reason that
Wilderun has been described as carrying the spirit of
Opeth, had they stayed faithful to their death metal roots and started gravitating toward the side of grandiose, symphonic compositions comparable to classical film scores. Both bands can go from zero to one hundred in a heartbeat and it is this “beauty and the beast” contrast that makes them both memorable. This
Opeth comparison bleeds deeper than technical and sonic similarities. You’ll find that the vocal timbre that singer/songwriter Evan Berry utilizes in his softer croons, and the texture in his growls is unmistakably inspired by Mikael Åkerfeldt. Key songwriting characteristics in
Wilderun’s music are also
Opethian cliches; like in their acoustic guitar interludes, dynamics in amp distortion, and contrasts in clean and abrasive sound designs. Looking deeper one can find similarities in their melodies and riffs; for instance, one can hear that the opening acoustic riff to “Distraction I” is a reimagining of “To Bid You Farewell” from
Opeth’s
Morningrise in 1996.
In comparison to
Wilderun’s previous works, this album is a lot more unique; as one might infer by the album artwork, the music illustrates a light and airy aesthetic. Rather than journeying through the hills or sailing through the seven seas, this
Epigone’s theme drifts amongst the clouds. Likewise, exploring the skies has its fair share of thunderous turbulence along with its serenity. Each of the first four nearly perfect tracks are full of contrasting compositions with progressive tempo shifts; all of which do exceptionally well building with soothing, clean vocal melodies (with complementing female vocals by Katie Müller), acoustic guitar tones, and seamless stringed orchestrations which lead to swirling crescendos that'll blow your socks off. These oscillating climaxes are as dense and intense as they come, utilizing Evan’s deep and textured growls, high-gain electric guitar riffs, pummeling blast beats, and ominous backing vocal harmonies.
The band has been known to experiment with varied sonic dynamics, going from quiet and serene to loud and massive in a heartbeat, but this album takes it a step further as they introduce harsh dissonant sections. It's like imagining you're floating gracefully through the soft white clouds, when the band builds up tension, you realize the pale clouds start turning black, and the storm rolls in with thunderous, chaotic dissonance. This is especially true in the album’s unprecedented finale, "Distraction Nulla", a song reminiscent of
Imperial Triumphant. This track has such a tone-shattering harshness that genuinely shocks you.
Just to elaborate, this is kind of what it is like listening to
Epigone for the first time. Imagine you are blindfolded and eating a new experimental version of vanilla ice cream; yes, you’ve eaten many versions of vanilla ice cream before, but vanilla is a classic for a reason. Additionally, you were also told that this product is an innovative take on the classic vanilla flavor. This pint of vanilla ice cream was like $49.99 and was made by an acclaimed ice cream specialty shop. You start eating into it, and you can immediately taste the incredible smoothness of this lush vanilla, you can feel the rich texture of the crystallized milk and gossamer grit of the ground vanilla bean (“Exhaler”). When you start tasting something unexpected, it’s actually kind of harsh and bitter but in a way, it goes well with the ice cream, because without it, the sweetness of the vanilla would have become quickly cloying by itself.
You continue eating into this delectable treat, feeling the subtle grit of the icy textures, oscillating between pieces that are sugary and pieces that are astringently invigorating. Through this, you are savoring the contrast and complexity of this dish and admiring the craftsmanship that went into it. Truly, a great synthesis of gourmet and scientific talent to bring you ice cream of this quality. As the composition becomes more familiar, you start anticipating the bitter pieces and they start becoming pleasantries. (“Passenger”, “Identifier”, and “Woolgatherer”) Sometimes, you’ll bite into underwhelming bites with not much flavor at all besides the slight vanilla residue (“Ambition”) but this flaw can be written off as a factory aberration, and the dynamic composition you’ve grown to love quickly returns (“Distraction I”, “Distraction II”, “Distraction III”).
“Coffee Beans!”
You exclaim to yourself as you finally realize what makes this innovative combination work. The artist who designed this intended for the ground coffee beans to serve as an acerbic contrast to the luscious vanilla. Such an evident achievement in the principles of design… but before your admiration could be drawn out further, your thoughts are abruptly put to an end as you bite into a chunk with three whole, unground coffee beans. (“Distraction Nulla”). This sends you into a realm of suffocating bitterness that can only be compared to chewing pills.
“Was this a mistake? How could there be so many whole coffee beans concentrated in just one bite? Who had sabotaged this ice cream experience?”
You leave somewhat disoriented, but overall, you will remember this experience. The faults do not stick in your mind as long as the peaks of the ice cream do, and you continue to remember when you were made fully satisfied by the middle part of your ice cream journey. Overall, a fantastic experience was cut short by a couple of jaggedly unpleasant bites, but it did not ruin the essence that you once experienced.
This overblown metaphor is about how overall products can be ruined when you are given a little bit too much, or too little, of an element that would have worked well in moderation with fluid contrast to other elements. Such as the abrasively dissonant “Distraction Nulla” or the tedious atmosphere in “Ambition”. But ironically, this creamy analogy of mine can just as easily be used for albums I hold near and dear to my heart; like
Devin Townsend’s over-the-top lyrical cheese that ensued during the title track of
Deconstruction, or the abrupt death metal transition in
Opeth’s “Hessian Peel”.
This shows that my gripe might be overlooked by history; when an album’s flaws are normalized by the passing of time, we’re able to see it more clearly.
Epigone is an amazing album from an amazing band. It may have some hiccups but its songwriting peaks allow us to overlook its momentary faults.
This review was originally posted on www.theprogressivesubway.com
