Dragged Into Sunlight — Widowmaker

Liverpool's Fab Four (no, not them) are back with Widowmaker, their second full length on Prosthetic Records. This follow up to Hatred for Mankind takes a decidedly different path on the way to ear crushing bliss. While Hatred.. was an assault of blackened death mixed with doom, Widowmaker takes a doom filled concept album approach. After forty well constructed minutes, you're left feeling like you've been tarred by an evil cult (feathering optional) and left in a swamp. At least there's a full moon.

Widowmaker is three tracks coming in at about forty minutes. Parts I-III flow together as if they're one forty minute track. Right from the get go of this album, you know you're getting something quite different from Hatred for Mankind. Part I is almost fifteen minutes of really nice and fairly haunting string work. The guitars have an excellent reverb and chorus (maybe?) effect on them. The slowly arpeggiated chords work their way through the song with varying companions. There are nice, low bass lines, background, muted windlike sounds, and more pronounced guitar effects. Most surprising (and effective) are the subtle violins and pianos. These extra strings add a lot of depth and character to the piece. It would definitely play well during the climax of a horror Western.
 

Naturally, Part I leads to Part II. The transition is flawless despite the differing styles of the two tracks. The mournful guitars turn angry and heavy. The floodgates open and we're treated to crushing, rifftastic doom and interesting metal arrangements for the remainder of the album.  Part II is the main doom steak of this beast. Whether taking a standard doom approach (crushing low end, thick bass lines, raging distortion), a death edged approach (double bass, slowed DM riffs, guttural vocals), or a post-rock approach (grooves with violins and audio samples, rock riffage, playful cymbal work), Dragged Into Sunlight really hammer home 12 minutes of engaging doom.
 

Part III rounds out Widowmaker very well. It combines the melancholy strings of Part I with the crushing metal of Part II. The thick, sustained bass lines, plodding drums, and screams remind me of a cold, split pea soup: thick, smoky, and wicked delicious. This breaks up, but not for long. The subtle use of swirling delay feedback adds an unsettlingly alien element to sparse bass lines. Whatever was up there certainly landed and began to crush again. This is thick, heavy, and has an excellent head nodding groove. Part III plays out that way until the end; rad and effective melancholy breaks up crushing and heavy doom.
 

Dragged Into Sunlight have put together a really excellent, well structured album. The more I listen, the more I find. The band is currently working with Dwid Hellion (of Integrity) on putting out a video companion to Widowmaker. I have no idea what it entails, but I'll definitely check it out if it means listening to this album while watching it.