Withering Soul- No Closure

 Withering Soul is a melodic black metal band from Illinois. No Closure is their second full-length, the album is filled with gothic influenced black metal with some death metal influence thrown in for good measure. When blending these elements the band creates a sound that will turn the listener's earwax black as night. Sit back and prepare yourself for some quality melodic black metal.

One thing that separates No Closure from many other melodic black metal albums is the intensity of some of the tracks. Songs like "Sadistic Redress" blaze through full force with a great amount of ferocity while tracks like "Unquiet" feature beautiful female vocals over dreary, lingering guitarwork. The band borrows elements from a few other subgenres and mold a sound of their own. There is plenty of gothic influence as well as hints of other things spread throughout the album, giving it a fairly diverse sound that many bands in this category tend to lack.

The vocals consist of a few different styles. Shrieks dominate the majority of the release but there are also a rather large amount of low growls sprinkled in the mix as well as some clean vocals. Female vocals fit the style of Withering Soul quite well and this is displayed flawlessly on the track "Unquiet".The songwriting featured here is great. The guitar playing maintains enough variety to hold the listeners attention. Many memorable moments are created and this may be due to the haunting atmosphere that seeps into many of the tracks on No Closure.

Overall No Closure is an excellent display of how melodic black metal should be done. The only modern melodic black metal band that comes near what Withering Soul have with this release is Fairytale Abuse. This is highly recommended to those who enjoy black metal, sure the melodic tag may have many shaking this album off but in many ways Withering Soul has captured a sound that will appeal to many people who may have previously loathed the genre. Even though the album runs a solid forty minutes it leaves the listener wanting more. Check it out.