Album Review: Wilderun - Epigone

When Opeth made their big shift, it was sort of the end of an era for more than just them. The bands that copied their approach were suddenly old-fashioned, and the influence was even more obvious than before. There was a gap out there that needed to be filled, and I'm not quite sure anyone managed to do just that. In all my recent writings, I have talked about Soen being what Opeth could have been if they ditched the death, but stayed metal. That did the job for me, but it's still only one facet of Opeth's equation. Wilderun are making their own attempt at continuing what would have been the natural evolution of Opeth, which makes their success so important. There is obviously a need, and a desire, but can they pull it off?

With this album, Wilderun is also making a shift towards a softer, more progressive rock direction, but there are two differences that make their evolution work; 1) It doesn't sound so infuriatingly old, and 2) They leave enough of their metallic past in the mix to leave us a trail of breadcrumbs showing how we got here.

"Exhaler" opens the record as an acoustic guitar and a crooning voice, a four minute meditation of beautiful sounds that try to entice you into the record. That maybe didn't need to be followed up by a similarly soft opening to "Woolgatherer", but the delay before we get to the metallic guitars makes them even more satisfying to hear. Combined with the string accompaniment, the mix of instruments makes for a lush and lovely sound. The band has taken melodic death metal and symphonic prog, and mixed them in a way that maximizes their power. Over the course of fourteen minutes, the song ebbs and flows through melody, folk, and hints of growling. The focus is clearly on the softer moments, but the roar of guitars is used just enough to make the space between the notes echo louder.

"Passenger" is where the band gets back to truly being metal, segueing into a mix of death metal and clean vocals that feels like a call-and-response between the past of their influence and the future of their destiny. It's here we can most clearly hear the thread of their identity being unspooled. Death metal is such a minor component to the ten minutes of the song, but that fury isn't missing when absent. The sound the band manages still holds that essence, even if they pull back from extremity more often.

Now, for all that good I've been talking about, there are some things we need to talk about as well. Like Opeth before them, some of the transitions between sections of these songs can be a bit rough. When one suddenly stops, for the next to pick up in a completely unrelated way a second later, it feels like a lack of care being put into the songwriting. We need more connective tissue to tie things together, rather than have some of these lengthy tracks feel like mosaics. Also, while the band creates some beautiful instrumental backdrops, and the vocals are very nice as well, the melodies themselves need more punch. For as much as the sound of the album is glorious, I don't find much of the record immediately memorable.

I know, this is progressive music, so that isn't always the key thing. But actually it is, because without that appeal to make me want to listen to the record again and again, the more adventurous and sophisticated elements go for naught. I won't quite say Wilderun is completely guilty of this, but this is a record I find myself appreciating more as a sonic painting than as an album. It sounds amazing, and I can get swept up in some of the swells, but it also comes across a bit flat. I need a riff I can sink my fingers into on a fretboard, or a melody the voice in my head will sing back to me over and over. That's what's missing.

That means "Epigone" is one of those albums I'm glad to hear, but still don't hear quite enough from. Wilderun is doing some great things here, and their evolution of the prog and death metal combination is exactly what we need, but there's still an element of hookiness needed to elevate this from very good into greatness. "Epigone" is wonderful for what it is, but I just want a little bit more.