Genre: Progressive/Black Metal/Gothic
Country: Norway
Label: Soulseller Records
Year: 2022
In times were two original members of Pantera can’t tour under this moniker if we believe some die-hards purists ( I really can understand why the argue but you get my point) I guess In The Woods… circa 2023 are far from using their name and having the approval of these certain kind of fans… Still for all us; the ‘others’ that don’t care if there’s only one original line-up member (for the record Anders Kobro is the one remaining) we were anticipating for the band’s sixth studio full length and the third album of the glorious comeback that launched in 2016. And thankfully ‘Diversum’ follows the same path as its predecessors in terms of high quality. The new singer, a 25 year long friend of the band Brent Fjestald grabbed the opportunity to fill the gap in the frontman’s role as a result of James Fogarty decision not to participate in composing songs for the album. Even though it’s rather not an empathically experimental effort still the album has diversity, as the title reveals, and besides the emotional depth that a record of the Norwegians acquire we probably deal with a work featuring 8 songs that have musicality as we have ever heard from In The Woods… before. Excellent songs such as ‘A Wonderful Crisis’ or ‘The Coward’s Way’ and ‘Your Dark’ shows the group in great shape with memorable melodies, dark and atmospheric -calm- passages, strong choruses, a blend of growls and soaring clean vocals, dynamic guitars, brilliant hooks that describe a melancholic, full of inspiration album that will capture all you fanatics from the sextet from Kristiansand’s finest…