Strange Balance

LISTEN: https://reposerecords.bandcamp.com/album/strange-balance

Within the growing horde of synth-toting metalheads, long-running kosmische project Tangerine Dream have become an unlikely touchstone. WIST are their latest acolytes, transmogrified from a ‘mere’ progressive black metal group on their new LP Strange Balance, which teeters delicately between black metal’s moody basements and a laconic hotbox of retro-synth. The second track, “Betrayal,” is perhaps the most compelling demonstration: clean incantations echo while harsh vocals cackle atop a lattice of fuzzy guitar leads and trippy reverb plucking, before the whole tableau melts into a shimmering ambience redolent with New Age soulfulness. The guitars often lean into the atmospherics – heavier, fuzzy riffs have a whiff of the good green, while the more intricate and ethereal plucking recalls the bleeps and bloops of Klaus Schulz’ modular synth. Of course, these elements may raise alarm bells. ‘Blackgaze,’ that largely abandoned and ultimately inconsequential trend, has perhaps tarnished efforts by metalheads to blend serenity and severity. Then there are the cheap ‘atmoblack’ catharses, the supposedly ‘avant-garde’ genre salads, and the slapdash dungeon synth interludes between bloated ‘trve kvlt’ eye-rollers that proliferate around the Bandcamp underground. Yet WIST are not so trite, and instead recall the electronic hallucinations of Bríi, or even sci-fi death metallers Afterbirth, despite their preference for sun-soaked cloisters over the vast emptiness of space. Unlike Mesarthim or Heretoir, their wide timbral complement achieves a symbiotic balance with both the individual ingredients and the band’s unique vision to concoct a bubbling cauldron of hazy vibes. Line up, drink deep, and come round for seconds – WIST have cooked up something special.