What Graceless Dawn
You had me at “rowan, ash, willow, oak”
dB rating: 8/10
Release Date: December 2, 2016
Label: Profound Lore
Do not attempt to listen to Worm Ouroboros anywhere near the squared-off structures and electric hum of civilization. Bundle yourself in warm, cushioned layers. Step into the crisp autumn chill. Trek out among the shivering, leaf-shorn trees under the gaping, cloud-streaked sky. Reach out—physically or psychically—to the skittish, scuttling woodland fauna. Get in touch with that trembling determination to survive winter’s famine. Watch rivulets of months-old mountain rain carve runnels under the season’s first paper-thin ice. Weave yourself a shelter out of thin green limbs and reed thatch. Accept that wood spirits are real, and they’re as likely to flood you with peaceful energy as drain you and leave your cold husk on the indifferent earth. Worm Ouroboros are their voice, full of spells and soothing. Worm Ouroboros will not let you go.
It’s hard to believe that What Graceless Dawn is seven years removed from the band’s self-titled debut, and that all of these compositions—as well as those on 2012’s Come the Thaw—arose from their own distinct recording sessions and weren’t derived from one long, uninterrupted dream state capriciously induced by Shakespeare’s Oberon or Patrick Rothfuss’ Felurian. Enchanting bass melodies and graceful guitar counterpoint melt into Aesop Dekker’s tasteful drum accents and the lilting feminine croon. Lorraine Rath and Jessica Way have summoned their version of the fey forest with its own amnesiac dangers, and each new recording draws listeners deeper into its shadowy heart. It’s far from unpleasant. It would be easy to die to music like this.
— Daniel Lake
This review taken from the January 2017 issue. What Graceless Dawn is available here on CD from Profound Lore.
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