Verwoed - De Val

So the Dutch band Verwoed has finally put out its first full length album called ‘De Val’. The band (previous known as Woudloper) did brought out an EP called ‘Bodemloos’ which was an amazing surprise to say the least. ‘Bodemloos’ was a pleasant surprise after the name-change from Woudloper to Verwoed. Even though ‘Bodemloos’ was a quite lengthy EP clocking in around 25 minutes but fans had to wait until 2019 for the next noises from the depths of Utrecht. After seeing their performance at Into Darkness 2018, I was very happy when I saw the news that Verwoed had finally put out some new material. So let’s dive in.

 

For those who don’t know Verwoed by name, they’re a mid-paced black metal band from the heart of The Netherlands. Sometimes there are some elements of doom metal but the main genre really leans towards black metal. There are a lot of black metal projects popping up in The Netherlands but sadly most of them quit very soon after but sometimes there are some beautiful pearls in the pile. Woudloper quit in 2015 and in 2016 Woudloper luckily turned into a more of a professional band called Verwoed. The big production sound change from the Woudloper EP to ‘Bodemloos’ needs to be called impressive. The guy behind the whole project, Erik B, has been making enormous steps in his approach to music. You did hear the change from Woudloper to Verwoed if you would compare the latest releases of every project with each other.

 

Verwoed now turned into a more professional band with excellent production sound. Every instrument can be heard perfectly. What I absolutely love about the project is that the bass is very prominent in the mix. It is a fat clunky bass-sound which is a perfect match for the whole production sound. You can hear a lot of doom influences which can also be described as melodic black metal. Not the cheesy melodic black metal you know and love but this is the slow melodic black metal you are going to love. Erik B has produced the perfect balance of modern Dutch black metal with doom metal. 

 

To my ears, the first few bands that have produced this kind of black metal were/are the Icelandic bands like Sinmara/Nadra/Mistyrming. The bands have influenced a lot of newer bands all over the world and probably have done the same with Verwoed. The atmosphere that Erik B has created with ‘De Val’ is needless to say enchanting. Usually you can listen to black metal songs separately however you don’t want to do that with ‘De Val’. You wouldn’t do Verwoed justice if you would listen to this album on shuffle. The whole album is a doomy-gloomy journey where you will get yourself lost into.