As someone who recently lost his sanity to the show True Detective, I often consider the phrase “time is a flat circle”. An example of this might be how, on struggling to find a good way to start this review, I looked for past mentions of darkwave on this site and found Goat’s review of Unsouling‘s debut, Vampiric Spiritual Drain. He was struck by the claims of darkwave and gothic influences in Unsouling‘s promo material, just as I am now with second album Outward Streams of Devotional Woe. The reviewer’s lot is to encounter and decipher bold claims over and over. It’s also a good reminder of why I’m listening to Unsouling. There are many, many black/death metal bands. There are few of them claiming to incorporate the calm, contemplative somberness of darkwave into that.
Embarrassingly enough, I actually forgot that during my first listen of Outward Streams of Devotional Woe and found it flat and dull as a result. One expectation reset later however, and Unsouling‘s vision clicked with me. This is all the work of one man, Andy Schoengrund (Feral Light, Wolvhammer), and it exemplifies the total focus of purpose that is the upside of the solo project. Everything here is about eerie melody and meditative soundscapes. The end result is quite close to doom metal — the latter half of “Your Momentary Passing” reminds me very much of My Dying Bride in terms of mood. The point of difference is that Unsouling focuses on plaintive post black metal leads, such as in “Passages” and “To Come Unbound”, and uses the more crushing death metal moments as found on “Grief Reconfigured” as an accent. The overall effect definitely shows off the darkwave influence and at its best, Outward Streams of Devotional Woe is the musical equivalent of watching a storm while warm and drowsy. However, I can’t help but have a sneaking suspicion that maybe a bit more crushing and a bit less contemplation would really make the songs complete.
The result is that, even after sitting with Outward Streams of Devotional Woe for a long time, I still can’t figure out just how much I like it. The only reasonable conclusion I came to is that it’s very much mood dependent. I have to be ready to sink down into the currents and let Unsouling‘s particular brand of gothic heaviness carry me down. If I’m not in the mood to slow down, then Outward Streams of Devotional Woe will come across as flat again. It’s been a great year for dark atmospheric metal and while Unsouling is part of it, they lack the consistently spellbinding qualities possessed by the best of it. And how many times am I going to say I like an album, but wish it was just that little bit greater?
