Wounds Of Recollection Delivers Emotionally Striking Post-Black Metal On Latest LP

The apparently Atlanta-area post-black metal project Wounds of Recollection has delivered an emotionally striking brand of post-black metal on their latest album, Nowhere Else Feels More Like Home, which is available now.

Each one of the six songs pack a rich variety of textures but center on a post-black metal vibe with a kind of wellspring of emotional release centered amidst the tunes. On Instagram, the artist behind the project has explained that they crafted the songs while isolating themselves amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. They took shelter, they explain, at the house in which they grew up. They share: “Diving deep into my sense of nostalgia helped me to cope with the strange sensation of being back at my childhood home during a time of great stress.”

To take a cue from the artist’s own explanations for the record, the songs feel like they’re soundtracking a walk through a memory-rich street while confronting the fact that fixtures of life from long ago may simply no longer be present. The extended, heavy melodies that flow through Nowhere Else Feels More Like Home feel contemplative in nature, rather than overly oppressive — although there are definitely some definitively heavy moments on the record, like during the opening of track two (“Limping Away From The Water”), the heaviness doesn’t feel like the focus. The shuddering guitars seem more like the lens through which to explore frequently solemn emotional landscapes.

The album progresses from slightly brighter-feeling tones — at least comparatively speaking — into moments that come across as more lonesomely painful. The energy in the heavy roars of guitar on track one (“Backyard Burial”) and elsewhere feels somewhat like a firework blasting across a nighttime sky — there’s a sense of emotional illumination mixed in with a sort of awe-inspiring exhilaration while making a journey through the music. The pensively structured yet heavy guitar riffing occupies a lot of the album’s spotlight — going further on, somberly contemplative melodies performed at a raging intensity close track two, for instance, and they also open track four (“Sanctuary”). The flowing melodies contrast strikingly with the harshly shrieked vocals; alongside one another, there’s a sense of a tension-riddled struggle with emotional dejection.

The place that the album’s gently but firmly propulsive melodies are pushing towards comes into more focus by the conclusion. The track “Dedicated to Sandy Denny,” which is the last track with a metal vibe, packs emotionally desperate-sounding riffs that feel like a musical encapsulation of acceptance of fate. The concluding track, which focuses on acoustic guitar and piano melodies, drives in this sense.

5/5 Stars

Nowhere Else Feels More Like Home is the eighth album from the remarkably prolific Wounds of Recollection. Check it out below (it was released on tape via Realm and Ritual):