Band:	Wijlen Wij
Album:	Coronachs Of The Ω
Style:	Funeral doom metal
Release date:	February 10, 2014
A review by:	BitterCOld

01. ...Boreas
02. Die Verwandlung
03. Laying Waste To The City Of Jerusalem
04. A Solemn Ode To Ruin...
05. From The Periphery

Right from the get-go Wijlen Wij plunge their listener into the murky depths.

"Boreas" opens powerfully with subhuman vocals and organ cloaked power chords that sound is if recorded by an 8 track in some massive subterranean cave. Rather than the often slick and powerful production like a lot of their Solitude label mates sport, they went for a more primitive sound.

Like a lot of their contemporaries in the extreme doom world, they crafted an album of five tracks that total more than 60 minutes of music, meaning you get a couple 17 minute pieces, and a few "short" tracks that clock in around 6-8 minutes. As mentioned, tons of indecipherable, guttural deathgrowl vocals, distorted power chords, and occasional moments of tension release. Not strict adherents to the formula, Quadruple U toss in other elements.

We're not 90 seconds into being smothered by the opening track, "Boreas", before the vocals switch to some clean singing. So yeah, you get a tiny respite of what sounds like Jesu's Justin Broadrick laying down vocal tracks over a Skepticism demo. The same track, one of the shorter two, also features a little piano/keyboard flourish over nylon stringed guitar.

"Die Verwandlung" begins with a more up-tempo, punishing rift before cratering into typical doom with mournful lead. Just a little jog of energy to break up potential doldrums.

The biggest downfall of the album is that the album just seem to get stale. "Die Verwaundling" starts interesting enough, but at some point in the 17-minute track it just starts to amble on. Despite attempts at bits here and there, including a very brief jump to double-time then warp speed, "Laying Waste To The City Of Jerusalem" just seems tedious.

Fortunately I found "A Solemn Ode To Ruin" a bit more interesting with the infusion of spoken bits and some mournful-sounding leads. But even then, at 17 minute it still drags.
Some acts/albums within the genre have been able to pull off epic length tracks long enough for you to road trip across Canada without seeming boring or repetitive. Tracks where, after a quarter-hour you snap out of a trance-like state and think "wow that was 15 minutes?" With this I get a bit of the opposite feel. "That was only 15 minutes? That felt like eternity."

I guess ultimately that is why this review took so long to pound out. Love the genre, like the band, rather enjoyed the opening track, but just couldn't motivate myself to sit through the entirety of it repeatedly. You know, Coronachs Of The Oh No, Not Again.

Check it out, though. The opener and closer are well and good, and you might find you enjoy the middle parts more than yours truly.