Wode : Uncrossing the Keys
Woe to metalheads who haven’t hopped aboard the Wode train since the band rose in 2011 from Manchester, England, like Jason Vorhees from Crystal Lake. No sooner did the band surface than they began its campaign of bloody, brutal, bare-knuckled slaughter. The black metal group mowed down listeners in short order with two albums in two years: their self-titled 2016 LP, followed by Servants of the Countercosmos the following year. The quartet took a four-year breather from murder before delivering Burn in Many Mirrors, and an equal amount of time between that record and the just-released Uncrossing the Keys, both through singular Pittsburgh underground heavy-music label 20 Buck Spin.
Until now, Wode’s sound was principally based on speedy black-metal riffs, overlaid with vocalist M. Czerwoniuk’s harsher-than-thou hollering. But with Uncrossing the Keys, the marauders proved they wanted to make a daring pivot, at risk of alienating black-metal purists, by benching those two trademark qualities of theirs in favor of a far more eclectic listen—an objective at which they succeed handily. On Uncrossing the Keys, Wode finally makes good use of the huge asset of which they didn’t take full advantage in the past: three guitars. Rather than mostly playing in unison, this time around, Czerwoniuk and his fellow axemen—T. Horrocks (who also plays drums and keys) and backing vocalist D. Shaw—engage in intricate interplay for the bulk of the record. Their alchemy results in an album with more melody than all Wode’s previous albums combined. And that’s really saying something, considering that their debut was one of my favorite albums of 2016.
In addition to expanding the range of their guitars—“Transmutation” and “Under Lanternlight” are the most impressive examples of that dynamic—Wode also use Uncrossing the Keys as an opportunity to slow down from time to time. “Prisoner of the Moon” revels in a transfixing 50-second instrumental that starts off the song, before Czerwoniuk chimes in and Horrocks turns to his double-kick drumming. It doesn’t take more than a half-minute, though, before Wode offer unpredictable twists and turns that make perfect sense in practice, including a brief foray into Iron Maiden-like gallop. That’s just one example, though; from “Fiery End” and its out-of-the-blue guitar heroics to the consummately creepy-sounding “Two Crossed Keys” (20 Buck Spin would be wise to release it as a single on Halloween Day) to the cosmic closer “Dashed on the Rocks,” Wode, after a decade of releasing music, resoundingly and deafeningly prove themselves capable of more advanced evolution.
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Year: 2025
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