If you caught my Watain review from a few months ago you may recall that I was a bit of a late bloomer to this Swedish black metal band. Well, its been a few months, I've purchased all of the bands albums, I proudly wear their t-shirt on my skin and I can officially say this, 'I FUCKING LOVE THIS BAND!''Lawless Darkness' continues the Watain legacy adequately in a very similar music direction and it serves as the perfect follow-up to the massive, 'Sworn to the Dark' from '07. What I find to be generally a bit different or even better about this record is that its a lot catchier and the musicianship seems even further improved.
As far as catchiness is concerned there are many parts on this album that just simply require you to scream out, headbang and pump your fists along with the songs. This is especially true in cuts like, 'Reaping Death' or 'Four Thrones' where I find it almost impossible to resist shouting out, "Hail Lucifer!" along with vocalist Erik Danielsson. However they are surely not the only ones as I feel that every single song on this record has at least some small part or chorus where I've found myself doing this. Can you tell that I want to see this band live or what?!
Also once again there are some insanely memorable riffs, leads and absolutely killer solos throughout this record. 'Malfeitor' stands out as one of the albums best melodically guitar driven songs, likewise, 'Wolves Curse' has an absolutely beautiful solo mid-way through it. The instrumental, 'Lawless Darkness' is also stunning and although its mostly slower than most Watain songs they still manage to achieve the same outstanding level of unrivaled excellence. 'Waters of Ain' is the albums epic (fourteen minutes long) number and bleeding fucking Christ is it ever impressive, though I'm still debating if its better than, 'Stellavore.'
Case and point though, if you like hard driven, energetic and melodic black metal with clear inspiration from classic Bathory, Mayhem and Dissection then you'll be blown away by this album just as I continue to be with each subsequent listen.
Additionally I have to say the booklet is absolutely marvelous with some of the best artwork I've ever seen in a metal album. Each song has a morbid drawing next to the songs lyrics and I have to say a lot of these grim illustrations are very tempting for future tattoos. Also as usual the band photos are superb and creative and I honestly hope I can hunt down the collector's edition of the album in the leather book without having to sell one of my kidney's to come up with the fundage for it.
In the end there's probably a bit more I could say, but honestly I'd sooner get back to the headbanging and all that other stuff I mentioned above instead. Anyway, hail, 'Lawless Darkness' and hail WATAIN!
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