Band:	Vvilderness
Album:	Dark Waters
Style:	Atmospheric black metal, Post-metal
Release date:	January 10, 2020
A review by:	RaduP

01. Dark Waters
02. Danu's Tears
03. Mist Pillars '19
04. It Comes With The Rain
05. Havasok / Snowy Mountains
06. Wilderness

Y'all remember unsigned post-black Bandcamp-core?

I mentioned in my Tod Huetet Uebel review that one of the sounds that dominated the 2010s was dissonant Deathspell Omega-influenced black metal, and that the album I was reviewing served as a decent eulogy for it. But if here was another sound that dominated the 2010s for metal, it was metalgaze and post-black, from big names like Deafheaven and Alcest which have even acted like bridges and gateways for people not into metal, to the thousands of Bandcamp projects that made this such a personal genre. And it seems like the genre is still going strong, as on the same day as Dark Waters, Unreqvited released not only a full length but a split with Sylvaine too. But I felt much closer to the unsigned underdog that is Vvilderness.

It's quite immediately clear that Vvilderness is an independent artist, with the sound being so raw and unpolished, not necessarily in the way that makes black metal sound cool, but not really terrible either. In fact there's something very endearing about the whole thing, about it being a one-man band and all that. There's a lot of music just like it online, one-man black metal or post-black metal or metalgaze or whatever, but it was Hungarian band Vvilderness that won me over with their previous (and first) album, Devour The Sun, to prove that there is still some vitality in the sound and aesthetic that I mentioned. Dark Waters doesn't stray to far from that album, but it finds the sound a bit more out of vogue, but one that still gets surprisingly a lot of attention in underground circles. So let's take a look.

Most of the album does have a bit more meat in the black metal side, though that does lead to some vocals that sound one-dimensional, apart from a second track where we do get some ethereal ones from a guest vocalist. Vvilderness are a lot closer to atmospheric black metal than a lot of their counterparts, with the gaze or post parts being quite minimal. Instead a much stronger aspect of it is the folk one, from some compositions by a Székely composer, to folk instruments that really enhance some of the atmosphere here. So much so that Dark Waters seems closer to the woods and snow type of atmoblack than the ethereal post one. But one thing is clear, even if the album doesn't always sound as good as it should, Vvilderness still manage to create some beautiful sounding atmospheres with what they have, especially in the closing track.

Vvildr shows here that he has the potential to go toe to toe with some big names given the proper label backing, but the more I listen to this, the more I doubt that he would want to.