Band:	Woods Of Ypres
Album:	Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light
Style:	Gothic doom metal
Release date:	February 27, 2012
A review by:	Doc G.

01. Lightning & Snow
02. Death Is Not An Exit
03. Keeper Of The Ledger
04. Traveling Alone
05. Adora Vivos
06. Silver
07. Career Suicide (Is Not Real Suicide)
08. Modern Life Architecture
09. Kiss My Ashes (Goodbye)
10. Finality
11. Alternate Ending

Wow, what a difficult review to write. On one hand, you want to reject any inclination to get caught up in posthumous worship that seems to happen to any deceased artist, on the other, it's hard to claim that the knowledge that you're playing that artists last message to the world doesn't add certain power. Listened to in context with David Gold's death, Woods 5 comes across as the most depressing album to drop in years. However, taken at face value, it's pretty decent. Nothing amazing, but well worth the listen.

Honestly, there aren't that many surprises here. The Type O Negative influence that became most prevalent with Woods 4 is continued even more deeply here. Any black metal segments that were once left in their music are completely stripped from them here. When a band ditches the harsher stuff for an album, and make it work like Woods Of Ypres have, chances are they'll stick with it. The exchange works well though, the grand, depressing melodies, which, although are not the most underused tunes, still have genuine passion behind them. Regardless of what you can say about the downsides of this album, it is heartfelt.

Oh right, yeah, the downsides. Well, as previously stated, a lot of these melodies seem extremely recycled at times, if not strictly borrowed from other bands, just basic to the point of being incredibly common. Combine this fact with the tendency to overextend some of these segments, and you've got a few boring parts as any album will have.

Overall it's a good album. If you can overlook the downsides to the album because of David Gold's death, you know what? There's nothing shameful about that. It's shameful to worship an album out of some bullshit, contrived sorrow over a band you never gave a shit about before. If this is the case, then please, kindly shut the fuck up and knock off the dishonesty. However, an artist strives to connect with their audience on some level or another, and if the career of Woods Of Ypres genuinely connected that deeply with you, then Woods 5 is a swan song worth raising your glass to.