33. An Abstract Illusion - "Woe"

Atmospheric, cinematic Death Metal from Sweden. “Woe” may pertain to having separate songs but actually this is a singular sixty-minute piece of work that may be the scariest and most depressing mediation track ever. It swirls in melancholic misery, full of creeping malevolence. 

If Metal usually flirts with darkness and evil, then “Woe” has got itself hitched to the bleak fraternity and produced a brood of twelve kids. This is not cartoon villainy though, this is a very real feeling of dissolution and despair. Sumptuous in its instrumentation, it uses Death Metal’s usually gregarious traits to paint a vivid picture of despondency and dejection. A heart-breaking but simultaneously stunningly creative record. It may be dark and oppressive, but the lush musicality gives it an expansive feeling that contemplates the bleakness.