WILL 'O' WISP „Unseen”

Will 'O' Wisp is a bizarre sounding band from Italy. They have been around since 1992 and released 2 albums and 1 demo to date. I remember hearing some material from Will 'O' Wisp back a few years ago, but then they sort of went into hiding and didn't hear much from them 'till now. When I first heard their music, it sounded like a mix of Marilyn Manson with Cradle of Filth style black metal (if my memory serves right). Unseen takes the band into a different direction. The black metal elements are totally absent, and what is left is an avant-garde, atmospheric and quite bizarre album. I really like the keyboards throughout the album; nothing like I've heard anywhere else before. The one thing that really bothers me every time I listen to Unseen are the vocals. The occasional female vocals are fine, but the male vocals really need some adjustment. Ermanno Argenti sounds like a drunk trying to sing to karaoke. Will 'O' Wisp really need to establish whether they want clean vocals or the black metal grunts, or at least find a descent balance of both.

I'm glad that I got that off my chest first, onto the music. The music is quite good. Nothing revolutionary or spectacular, yet enjoyable in a weird kind of way. There is a lack of structure to the songs on Unseen, but my understanding is that it is intentional and just the way the band writes songs. The songs change tempo a lot and sometimes sounds like each song is a collage of many different songs welded into individual compositions. Favourite track from Unseen is Nusku. Not as good as “weird” bands like Arcturus or Dodheimsgard, but a few more small adjustments and they might rise up on my weird meter (I like weird bands, so being weird is not a bad thing in my books, you just have to do it in the right way ).

note: 7/10