Ouija: Riding Into The Funeral Paths

Hailing from hell-knows-where, Ouija is a five-piece band that plays black metal the way it has been oh-so-many times before. It's very fast and definitely hate-filled with some mid-paced atmospheric parts here and there. It's not entirely original, however, that doesn't take away from the quality of the product. Music is excellent, production is very strong, and cover art is not bad - sounds like a recipe for success in my eyes. It'd even say that Ouija go for some pretty vile sound on occasion. As it happened to Setherial who have released an amazing imitation of what Emperor has been doing for years before them, Ouija is definitely guilty of listening to way too much Satyricon and Cradle of Filth.

One thing that I really didn't like on this album is the vocals. They are pretty painful to be perfectly honest with you. They aren't plain screamed as it's the case with many black metal albums, and they aren't that raspy. You could call it a screech, but it's not it. The closest comparison would the work of Attila on "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" album by Mayhem - remember those Popeye-like noises? The sound of the door opening accompanied by the wailing of rusty hinges - which is another close description of the vocals on Riding Into The Funeral Paths. They also use clean singing once in a while, but it doesn't really improve the matters. There's no power in this screeching whatsoever; it's just annoying.

However, the music is excellent here. It successfully combines the atmospheric parts and the aggressive ultra-fast parts. The band is definitely accomplished musicians, which is very much evident throughout the record, especially on the tracks like "Crossing the Seven Gate" and the title track. There is a lot of complexity in their music and sometimes it even gets rather intricate. But overall, this one of the more accessible black metal albums. I'm not saying that it's ear candy like Night In Gales or In Flames, but it's far from being played the way black metal was supposed to be (remember the first Beherit album or early Emperor). Guitar parts are very melodic yet raw enough to keep the songs enjoyable.

The band wanted to conceal their identity; their motivation being that most of the black metal fans tend to slug off the bands that aren't of the Nordic origin. This makes me actually speculate that the band are really Spanish and most likely were all playing death metal or even grindcore (going by their speed handling skills) in the past. I really don't think that they have a valid point here. It's just the simple fact that most of the Spanish black metal bands that I've heard so far were quite horrible (i.e. Blazemth and Xhanarathorn). Overall, I must say that Riding Into The Funeral Paths is a quite successful album that proves the point that even if you're not entirely original you can still create flawless album. Hopefully, with the next releases Ouija will pick up some of ideas of their own and will combine them with what they've already accomplished to create a true black metal masterpiece.

Added: January 1st 2004
Reviewer: SoT Archives
Score:
Hits: 3217
Language: english

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