Description

Black vinyl with insert

The Howling Wind is a very interesting cross-country collaboration by two members having served time in other US cult metal acts: Ryan Lipynsky, aka Killusion was a member of the seminal, deep NY black metal act Thralldom, but is better known as the vocalist and guitarist for Unearthly Trance. Parasitus Nex also works with Oregon death fiends Splatterhouse and The Warwolves as their vocalist, but plays the drums here. The style these two conjure on this sophomore outing Into The Cryosphere is one of relative novelty: black metal infused with elements of doom and sludge metal, without any loss to the gnarled, bitter core. Their sound is somewhat similar to Nachtmystium’s middle-period material — the total prog rock experimentation of an album like Assassins: Black Meddle, Pt. 1 is not present, but the mix of black metal blare and post-punk throb is. Lipynsky’s guitar work is quite technically skilled, occasionally heading into the dissonant, even disorienting territory heard on Krallice’s two albums, and “Impossible Eternity” features some psychedelic effects, in addition to creepy chanted vocals in the background of the mix. Nex’s drumming is sometimes rudimentary, but at other times, his patient timekeeping is more effective than a showier performer would have been. This is an album that demands to be heard as a single half-hour suite rather than a collection of discrete songs. Its power builds over time, from the slow, incremental first track “The Seething Wrath of a Frigid Soul,” through a series of similar but complementary pieces and cresting with “Impossible Eternity.” The album’s final track, “A Dead Galaxy Mirrored in an Icy Mirage,” uses waves of noise and raging aggression to bring the listener out of the desolate mood created over the course of the previous six pieces, ultimately releasing him or her back into the world, head spinning.

Track list:
1. The Seething Wrath Of A Frigid Soul
2. Teeth Of Frost
3. Obscured Pyramid
4. Ice Cracking In The Abyss
5. Will Is The Only Fire Under An Avalanche
6. Impossible Eternity
7. A Dead Galaxy Mirrored In An Ice Mirage