Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin are both artists from the US, and they have teamed up once more to bring us a new outing of mournful doom.
2020’s Stygian Bough Volume I was one of my favourites from that year, so I was very excited by the appearance of Stygian Bough Volume II. Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin have impressed in the past, but can they do so again?
As you’d likely predict, the answer is a resounding yes. Containing four massive songs, with a total duration of 58 minutes, the collaboration between Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin has once again borne colossal doom metal fruit.
Existing somewhere between beauty and darkness, Stygian Bough Volume II is an odyssey of traditional doom metal, funeral doom, and dark folk. It’s richly expressive, highly atmospheric, and brims with emotional depth. The music drips with feeling, and you can lose yourself in its doleful waters forever, diving ever deeper into the abyss.
Each lengthy song offers up a world of its own for the listener to spend eternities in. Entire planets of doom await the hardy explorer, never tiring or expiring, ready to infuse your senses with the most glorious doom metal you can imagine. The sorrowful melodies get under your skin. They’re infectious in their doom-ridden melancholy. Add to this the gorgeous clean singing that’s saturated with grief-stricken feeling, and you have an album that’s remarkably impactful for something so slow and woeful.
Stygian Bough Volume II is another excellent record from Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin. If doom metal is your thing, and you like your music glacial, atmospheric, emotive, and drawn out, then this is for you.
Essential listening.
Wonderbox Metal 