In the Woods… – Diversum (Review)

In the Woods… are a Norwegian progressive metal band and this is their sixth album.

Diversum contains 50 minutes of avant-garde metal that takes elements of the progressive, pagan, doom, and post-black metal styles into its sound to produce a compelling collection of tracks.

This is richly crafted music, made from choice ingredients that are then forged together by accomplished hands. In the Woods… have the knowledge and experience to write songs that hit hard, through both instant-gratification and via rewarding depths to be explored at the listener’s leisure.

There’s a heaviness to the music that’s satisfying. This comes not just from the precisely applied distortion, but also from the strong levels of emotive content that the band infuse their songs with. This is dark music for dark nights, yet is also surprisingly diverse within this. The songs range through a variety of dark moods, and incorporate and many different paces, atmospheres, and creative ideas within their self-created darkness.

An album like this would fall flat on its face, despite how good the rest of the music is, if the singer wasn’t up to the daunting task of fronting it effectively. Pleasingly, there are no issues here. The vocalist has a powerful and diverse voice, capable of both brutality and beauty.

The catchy melancholy and hook-filled gloom of Diversum is wonderfully realised. In the Woods… have created an accomplished and engaging album that benefits from the band’s experience and skill. Diversum‘s strong and memorable songwriting wins the day, and this is an album you’ll want to keep going back to again and again.

Very highly recommended.