The whole post black metal thing that has been spreading in the last few years is admittedly awesome. I'm so glad that people have finally been able to find the link between black metal and truly beautiful music. Some of these records have had me fall deeply in love and given me courage through the night. Some of them have guided me away from suicide, and many have informed my own music. Unfortunately that is not always the case. At the risk of sounding like a mealy mouthed scallywag, sometimes a scene gets too crowded. There is no such thing as a perfect genre and occasionally you find yourself facing a record that doesn't quite stand up to the level set by groups like Alcest, Downfall Of Gaia, and Woods Of Ypres. I'm not saying that Vow Of Thorns latest offering, the six track Farewell To The Sun is a stinker, but merely that given so much choice in the genre I'm not sure where Vow Of Thorns fit in.
There is nothing out and out offensive about what Vow Of Thorns have done here. In fact quite a bit of it is rather good. It just feels lacking. The acoustic moments are good, but they don't often go anywhere. The melodies, while certainly there don't have the sense of drive that makes a band like Agalloch so good. In other words, though the musicians are certainly talented as players I'm regularly left wondering about the songwriting chops. While this certainly is a style of music I enjoy, and Vow Of Thorns do indeed pull off some cool things (The bridge of Farewell To The Sun Part I is a special favorite of mine) the album as a whole feels rather understated. It's almost as if Vow Of Thorns have seen the light, yet they are not fully sure how to act on it. The end result is some almost-powerful black metal. Maybe I'm just not in the right headspace for this album, but upon repeat listens, rather than starting to make sense, you start to instead see the holes in the record even more clearly.
I don't mean to shit all over this record. It is legitimately good, but not great, and in a genre that has been star studded as this one these last few years it's really only the great ones that catch my interest time and time again. Clearly the folks in Vow Of Thorns know what they are doing and can put together some very solid tunes. This is the band's first full length – so it's obvious that there are going to be times when they clearly fall short (I'm looking at you 'Farewell To The Sun Part II', and yes, there is a three part title track) but I get the impression that Vow Of Thorns have dealt long enough in the pursuit of the sun and the allure of the earth to pick themselves up, brush themselves off and keep going. There is something very human here, hidden behind the periodic rough patches and it makes me genuinely believe that Farewell To The Sun is merely the predecessor to much greater things to come.
Score: 5/10
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