WIGHT (Through The Woods Into Deep Water) 2LP/CD
After the successful release of the debut album 'Wight Weedy Wight' (review here), Germany's WIGHT come up with their second full-length 'Through The Woods Into Deep Water' in 2012. In contrast to the debut, WIGHT moved away from the lysergic heaviness in favour of a more classic heavy rock sound. Of course, the 1970's still play a major role here and it's obvious that WIGHT tie on the heydays of heavy rock. But the entire production is less voluminous than on 'Wight Weedy Wight' and WIGHT concentrate more on straightforward songs. That does not mean, however, that the songs are brief and decisive. Most of the included 9 cuts are 6 to 11 minutes in length and there is still enough space for jamming - here comes everyone at his own expense, because there is a whole lot of variation.
The first mesmerizing cut 'Kiss Your Friends Goodbye' is like an invocation to darkness with its Sleep-esque chant which is embedded in towering, doom-ized riffs in order to ensure a good entry into the world of WIGHT. Then comes 'I Spit On Your Grave' where WIGHT have borrowed a couple of riffs from Pentagram's 'Forever my Queen'. Initially I thought it was a cover version, but after a short time it becomes clear that the song goes in another direction. With 'Southern Comfort & Northern Lights', WIGHT reveal their love for early Black Sabbath and 'Holy Mountain' era Sleep and the spirit of both bands is omnipräsent, even if the additional percussion and groove in the beginning wakes up recollections of Captain Beyond and early Santana. But that's not all: after approx. 7 minutes a saxophone comes into play and changes the direction of the song up to the moment when the band returns back to the groove.
'Halfway To Infinity' is an acoustic breather as one knows it from the rock albums of the 1970's, but the following 'Master Of Nuggets' (by the way, I really like this ambiguous song titles...) goes back to the loud heaviness. This is one of my favorite tracks of this album. I really like the jam-like part in the middle, but also in other respects it leaves nothing to be desired. The groove is irresistible and the riffs are really strong. Here, too, it is seen that guitarist Rene Hofmann's vocal skills have improved since 'Wight Weedy Wight' and already there he did a very good job. The sixth song 'You!' works on a similar basis as 'Master Of Nuggets', which means it starts heavy and loud until it morphs into a more mellow part but this time with an additional blues harp. 'Big Dose' is another short cut that makes me feel as if I would listen to a weird 1970's prog band, whereas 'On A Friday' is a little too dramatic for my taste, especially because of all the hardcore-like screaming at the end of the song.
The last epic track 'Through The Woods Into Deep Water', which I like much better, is a heavy instrumental, sublime journey through darkness where 1970's rock and 1980's doom metal blend into one mammoth unit. In summary therefore, it can be said that WIGHT has made an important step forward with their second album. They have sharpened their own sound without compromise in performance, even if there is still some progress to be made. Nevertheless it can be said that WIGHT belong from now on to the spearhead of Germany's 1970's heavy rock scene. Well done, guys! Please note that the vinyl edition has been released by Bilocation Records.
(KK)