28) WOODS OF YPRES - Against The Seasons: Cold Winter Songs From The Dead Summer Heat (Krankenhaus - 2002)
Recently-signed to Earache Records, blackened metallers Woods Of Ypres struck earlier in their career with their debut Against The Seasons: Cold Winter Songs From The Dead Summer Heat which changed the landscape of this genre in Canada.
Writes David Perri, in his and Martin Popoff's book The Collector's Guide To Heavy Metal Volume 4: The '00s: Ontario's Woods Of Ypres peaked early, the band never quite able to match the prowess of this phenomenal debut. Based in Windsor at the time (Windsor is literally right across from river from Detroit) but eventually re-locating to Toronto and then back to its native Sault Ste. Marie, Woods Of Ypres shocked everyone with this out-of-nowhere debut, the record receiving universal praise and rightly so. The fact that a self-released band could create such impressive black metal was a testament to the will of the group's founder and chief songwriter, David Gold, a self-avowed black metal fanatic. The quality of this album can't be stated enough: had it been released at the height of the early '90s Norwegian scene, Against The Seasons would have long ago been considered an essential classic of the sub-genre. Espousing cold black metal production (though not as cold or ice-obsessed as DARKTHRONE), Against The Seasons seethes with the sub-genre's vehemence but transcends the norm because of its impressive song-writing and flowing listenability: the tracks here are impeccably constructed, encased in soaring melody and despondent purpose. Almost a decade later, the record holds up and one is consistently reminded of that initial '02 amazement whenever Against The Seasons is re-visited; for a sub-genre fanatical about the obscure, I hope that this thing continually tape-trades like crazy in Scandinavia.
