The more metal inclined of you should lap this fabulous album right up.
What first caught my attention when I saw Witherscape on the release sheets, was the name of the band's singer Dan Swano. Mr Swano is a very talented man, a multi-instrumentalist and producer, who has also sung on a lot of metal/rock albums over the years be it with Nightingale, Edge Of Sanity or Bloodbath. He first came to my attention when I heard his rich deep vocal roar on the Ayreon albums, where he worked closely with Arjen Lucassen. It fascinated me that this man could switch from a powerful vocal bellow to an all out growl and back again in a heart beat. This vocal technique always seemed to work on whatever he put his mind to and Witherscape is no exception. Witherscape is actually just two people: Swano who sings, plays drums and keyboards and Ragnar Widerberg who handles the guitars and bass. The history of the band also goes back longer than you might think. The two men meeting and working in a Swedish music shop quite a few years ago, where they talked about the idea of forming a band together and from those early discussions Witherscape was born.
The album itself is a concept that Swano says deals with the story of a wealthy man who inherits a large estate upon the death of his parents. He goes on to say that when the man pays a visit to this strange old house, all kinds of weird shit starts to happen – a great explanation of the story. Right from the off I must tell/warn you that even though the music and songs on this album are of a heavy but very melodic nature, they also have growl vocals on nearly all of them. Yet I recommend you not to be put off by this because the growls only enhance the songs and Swano puts in one his best performances to date. So when you do get to listen to songs like 'Astrid Falls', Mother Of The Soul, 'Dead For A Day' or 'The Math And The Myth', it won't matter a jot that the growls are present.
With Witherscape, Swano and Widerberg have created a potent metal band that know how to use just the right amount of melody to make each of their songs standout from the crowd. Whether the more faint hearted will get what is going on is debateable, but the more metal inclined of you should lap this fabulous album right up.
Ian Johnson
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