Wiegedood means in dutch something like “death in the cradle” and it is the name of a black metal band from Belgium. Wiegedood, mostly a little secret among black metals fans, who never minded that the lyrics are written in dutch, are always convinced with their songwriting, their crazy music videos, and last but not least with the atmosphere in their songs. Now, after the trilogy, “De doden hebben het goed I-III“ (which means something like: The dead have it good) and according to the three albums, they are releasing a new album “There’s Always Blood at the End of the Road”. For the first time, it’s new that the lyrics are written in English. So, I was very curious about the music as well as the mood in the songs as usual.
The first song of the album and also one of the previously released music videos ‘FN SCAR 16’ leave no eye dry. The video is just as crazy as the song and actually the album itself. In general, I must say, that the new album “There’s Always Blood at the End of the Road” is a lot more progressive and experimental than their trilogy in my opinion. This is by no means criticism at the point, but simply a fact, which I would like to emphasize here. I personally like this development and had as well as still have a lot of fun listening to this album.
Okay, enough of the superficiality. I do not want to go into detail about the single songs, because I think that this is not appropriate for the album for the most part. The opener ‘FN SCAR 16‘ introduces a long acoustic story over several tracks, which sound musically coherent and complete in themselves. Without looking at my playlist, I could not recognize the track endings, so I just enjoyed it in one piece. Although I also have to say that the album did not convince me the first time I listened to it. Only after listening to it several times, I gradually became aware of details in the songwriting that make the songs really interesting. I say, that this album is a grower: You have to give the album some time until you really can listen to it, like it, or understand it. As I said before, up to a certain point it feels like just one really good very long song full of crazy song parts, hypnotic atmosphere, and a blast of power in the sound and in the songs themselves. At this point, it should be said that I would be glad to see these songs live in this order, which would be very appropriate. After all, they have also played the trilogy live in one piece, so I have confidence in Wiegedood and it will be really great.
Well, I rave a lot about this album and it is appropriate, really. However, for me personally, there is a point in the album so it no longer sounds like it was played smoothly in one piece. The song ‘Nuages’, which was also released as another crazy music video before, closes the album for me, at least musically. After that, there are two songs that are really very good, but somehow no longer fit into the one sound flow that the other songs created for me. The last two songs ‘Theft And Begging’ and ‘Carousel’ in themselves are very good songs and I like them (especially the awesome vocals and lilting atmosphere in ‘Carousel’), but the songs come a bit unexpected after the first „long song“. Maybe they make lyrically more sense (after all, Wiegedood seems like a concept band), but I had no lyrics available at the point so I am not able to judge it.
So, all in all, the album is awesome: From banger riffs to atmospheric parts to playful compositions, everything is there.
Finally, there is not much to say about the sound of the album itself. As a hobby musician I always try to find something bad in sounds, but in “There’s Always Blood at the End of the Road” I just can not find anything that bothers me. The vocals, the guitar riffs, the bass, the drums… everything in a very good mixture. I miss nothing and I have the feeling that the individual parts are finely mixed and fit into each other. Rarely that I myself am convinced of sounds, but “There’s Always Blood at the End of the Road” is really good as far as the sound is concerned. Please keep it up for future records Wiegedood!
If you like atmospheric black metal and enjoy listening to well-composed albums, you will like the album “There’s Always Blood at the End of the Road”. It is atmospheric, progressive, and slightly crazy. Especially the fact that it sounds like a single song for the most part of the album convinced me. If this album had been released in 2021, it would definitely have been on my top album list of the year 2021. However, Wiegedood has set a very high standard for 2022 that is hard to beat for the others. Definitely a recommendation from my side!
