Album Review: And Now The Owls Are Smiling – Dirges
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
We in the UK didn’t seem to get on board with the second wave of Black Metal in the early-nineties. There were a few bands who appeared to embrace the scene – Cradle of Filth being the most notable – but their bombast and sense of the theatrical was often at odds with the lo-fi nature of music’s grimmest genre.
When Burzum-influenced bands started to gain traction at the end of the noughties, thinking broadly of the likes of Wolves in the Throne Room and Alcest, who utilised the epic nature and emotive possibilities of the genre, that the British bands started to come into their own.
Flag-bearers of the UK scene were, and still are, Winterfylleth, whose brand of Heritage Black Metal sees them producing lengthy compositions celebrating the storied historical past of these islands and who forged a path for others to follow.
…And Now the Owls are Smiling are one such band. Formed in 2016 in Norfolk, this one-man project is the baby of prolific multi-instrumentalist, Nre, with Dirges being the third full-length album in four years along with a host of shorter recordings.
True to its name, Dirges is eight tracks of emotionally charged Black Metal, crafted from same material as Winterfylleth et al, but with Nre’s singular take on the natural world. Short opener, Grief, is the sound of a swelling sea and medieval chanting, which gives way to epic and atmospheric Rejection. Built from walls of sound the track moves from a barrage to being achingly desolate; Nre’s combination of demonic screeches, low growls and clean vocals pepper the song as it soars and drops through its eight-plus minute run-time.
Solitude and Acceptance are both slower and more reflective songs, in which the frenzied drumming and ferocious guitar open out to allow the music to breath and to stretch its limbs. There’s nothing rendered less imposing by the lack of speed, rather the opposite, with the former featuring a classical sounding keyboard to play off against the intensity. Acceptance is close to Drone at times, bleakness manifested in a repetitive and hypnotic rhythm which is both beguiling in its simplicity and achingly fragile.
While I found the song Darkness to be a little formulaic the same cannot be said for Pointless, which feels like the distillation of everything Nre is striving for on Dirges. Amid the cacophony there stands a cathartic release of emotion. The juxtaposition of dark vocals and soaring keys create a duality of light and shade throughout the song and, as the title suggests, the futility of trying to resolve these opposing forces.
The epic nature of Black Metal lends itself to such contradictions and Nre’s compositions on Dirges are simultaneously devastatingly brutal and preciously delicate.
Should you be wondering about the unusual band name, Nre explained it in a 2019 interview with Ever-Metal.com that is comes from his inhabiting a rural area: “I see many owls and thought that if they ever smiled at humans and were no longer afraid of us as a species, then the human-race is doomed.”
It all makes sense now.
