Viva La Vinyl
Windhand - Windhand (Deluxe Reissue)
It was a magical time, back when Pandora was for music discovery and not just another streaming service fighting for your dollar. I was easing into my metal phase, and Pandora was the water wings helping me out of the shallows. Sigur Ros helped me find atmospheric and instrumental bands like Explosions In The Sky and Mogwai. Mastodon and Baroness led me to more doom and sludge like Red Fang and Windhand.
Plodding and heavy riffs trudging through dark, forest mud paths with haunted wails in the night fog. Twisted, knotted witch finger branches clawing at your neck. This is definitely music for Spooky Season.
This debut album drew a lot of comparisons to Black Sabbath, and I guess that could get some people interested, but personally I think the vocals are far superior from Windhand. And while there may not be guitar solo gymnastics on this album, there is mood. You look at the album cover, and that’s exactly what this album sounds like.
The demos added to this reissue/deluxe version are nice to have, but not essential. The one guitar solo you’ll get is on the bonus track “Amaranth,” so it kind of feels like all those demos might have been added to fill out a second vinyl record. They sound good though — not a lot of noise — so that’s either due to a good pressing, or my brush skills.
-bcp