Blood of the Black Owl - A Feral Spirit Review
by Mark Hensch
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Blood of the Black Owl's A Feral Spirit is every bit a spirit journey as it is a heavy metal album. At times frenzied and ferocious, at others serene and meditative, Spirit captures the human experience from the perspective of the natural world. Given how humanity has at times been nature's savior and slayer both, it makes for a schizophrenic, at times transcendental, experience.
Formed in 2004 as Svart Ugle ("Black Owl" in Norwegian), Blood of the Black Owl immediately concerned itself with producing reflective, deeply spiritual metal. At its heaviest, this music takes the form of immeasurably heavy funeral doom. At its lightest, it manifests itself in a form of trippy, paranoid folk music which owes Native American ritualism a heavy debt. Having liked the band since its self-titled 2006 debut, I can safely say that Spirit is a mind-blowing culmination of these traits.
Opening cut "Spell of the Elk," for starters, is less a song and more an invocation. Soft, moody woodwinds expand horizons while singer/songwriter Chet W. Scott chants recitations about the glory of nature over ringing drums. Interspersed within this shamanistic moment are sounds of weather, animals, and natural events, all of which gives the song a deeply immersive feel.
Contrasting this is "Crippling of Age," the likes of which smashes bones with a veritable war hammer of unexpected doom. The riffs dance with wild fury, switching chaotically and drawing listeners into their primal rage. Once exhausted, this anger is replaced by a cool, shimmering guitar run which slowly fades into yet another assault on the senses.
"The Melancholy Article," meanwhile, mixes ethereal guitar tones, woeful pipes and stark organ hums into a potion of sadness. The whole thing pulls together a claustrophobic tension, the likes of which never explodes. Rather than ending in fiery holocaust, the song instead sinks beneath a mournful wail, never to return.
Last but not least, "Journey of the Plague Year" deftly weaves all these disparate elements into one fantastic song. Beginning only with the mournful simplicity of open guitar notes, the song slowly builds itself into a towering hulk of psychedelic riffs espousing nothing but despair and entropy.
The true measure of art is how well the artist conveys a different worldview. A Feral Spirit achieves this mission in spades – this is a unique, powerful call to arms over how humanity treats its own environment. Though a long journey – the album clocks in at 71 minutes – those seeking a profound soul-searching will find it here. Mystical and majestic, A Feral Spirit is that rare album where innovation and conviction meet with stunning results.
Blood of the Black Owl's A Feral Spirit
Spell of the Elk
Crippling of Age
He Who Walked Away from the Fire & Laughed as He Bled
Void
The Melancholy Article
Unattainable Vistas of our Rememberance
Forest of Decrepitude
Inter-Weaving the Beyond
Journey of the Plague Year
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Blood of the Black Owl - A Feral Spirit Rating:9.0
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