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PREMIERE: Wiegedood's "Onder Gaan" is a Black Metal Masterstroke

Atmospheric and crushing at the same damn time.

If you sit and think about it, it's kind of incredible what black metal has been able to do in the past ten years. When other subgenres of metal like death try to mutate into something, a lot of the time it can come out sounding really corny, or flat out awful ala deathcore. Even if you're some kind of black metal purist, the new movements in the genre also trickle over into finding the best potential riffs, or how to go about exploring different methods of expressing emotion. Wiegedood manages to combine different aspects of the genre that you'd have to be the most jaded motherfucker not to be down.

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Wiegedood is a band from Belgium composed of members of Rise and Fall, Oathbreaker, and Amenra. Their new track "Onder Gaan" shows off different sides of the band's prior histories in assorted hardcore bands, and how those gazes combine and form to deliver crushing black metal. "Onder Gaan" manages to do a lot of interesting stuff in its 11 minute run time, the most immediate being that it hits and punches relentlessly. Even though the song goes into the more atmospheric areas of black metal that have emerged over time ala Wolves In The Throne Room and Amesoeurs, the band does not lose out on creating complicated and compelling riffs that make the later introduction of the melodic much more resonant and emotional. Instead of pointless shredding, each riff in the song gives scope and impact, showing the listener it's all building toward a greater meaning.

Follow John Hill on Twitter at @JohnxHill