August 25, 2010

Reviewer: Chris

Germany’s doom masters Wheel emerge once more with the latest offering in the form of the band’s first full-length after one wildly impressive demo. When I first heard the 2009 demo I was more than a little impressed to say the least. When you think of true doom metal music this is precisely the formula that is required hearing, and the album here only strengthens my opinion that Wheel is the modern day answer to true doom metal brilliance.

Once again the perfection that was Black Sabbath, Warning and Solitude Aeturnus is tapped into with the right amount of formulaic effort that might be typical but resounds well when played to this level of talent. The music is anvil-on-the-neck heavy in just about every aspect of this offering, placing these guys at the top of the current doom metal heap. This is not contrived ‘gothic-doom’ that slows to the point of abandonment; every track offers a very strong balance of fuzz-laden guitar work possibly out of old Marshall amps and vocals that reproduce Warrel Dane’s Sanctuary days not so much in high velocity, but natural tone and carry. Listen to Sanctuary’s “Soldiers of Steel” and then to vocalist Arkadius Kurek’s delivery in “Lilith” and notice the astounding similarities. However, that’s where the line between the two bands erases as abruptly as it is drawn. Kurek’s vocals can dance around tones of Peter Steele-lite and Messiah Marcolin with relative ease, yet Kurek’s style is one of subtle resonance.

When you think of modern doom metal it’s often relegated to some passing fad somehow incestuously married to this gothic/death trend that is tired and devoid of any long-staying ability. A band like Great Britain’s Warning, which produced the masterpiece Watching From a Distance a few years back, calls upon the masters of the genre and produces, in this writer’s opinion, a near perfect reflection in a modern day dark and gloomy effort. Wheel has also achieved such a station in the genre, providing nothing short of an amazing record that is not only nearly flawless in production but equally as brilliant in material.  Songs like “Ethereal Sleep” and “To My Love Departed” are so ghastly in haunting appeal that any true fan of this style will no doubt find Wheel the answer to the question, What exactly is modern day doom metal?

Some of the best moments are generously dispersed throughout each track, making this an album that should not be ignored or passed over. The music is of such tremendous caliber that I certainly think this album might have been the last holdover from the late Seventies prog era that permeated the underground back when. The band manages to enlighten your senses and lift your consciousness so easily in tracks like “Only God Knows” or “The Mills of God”. Actually, “Only God Knows” is for me, upon a first listen, what Sabbath’s “St. Vitus’ Dance” was back in my youth: a casual design of hard rock music that begs to be looped so as to get something new and exciting every time it’s heard. I cannot love this sound and this band any more if I tried, and I think you will certainly feel the same.

Wheel is also available in a limited edition of 444 vinyl copies and I admit to be more than slightly anxious to hear this being pulled from a record needle into the air. Absolute vibrancy through a heavy metal marsh is what Wheel offers, so grab this one as quickly as you can.            

Release Date: February 23, 2010
Label: Eyes Like Snow

TRACK LISTING

1.  The Mills of God
2.  To My Love Departed
3.  Lilith
4.  Eyes of the Hydra
5.  Ethereal Sleep
6.  Only God Knows
7.  The Day I Need You Most
8.  Entrance Into White Light

Total playing time:  53:35

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