Review: Twilight Fauna – 'Fire Of The Spirit'

TWILIGHT FAUNA
'Fire Of The Spirit'
SELF-RELEASED

Twilight Fauna is one of those projects that is incredibly evocative. Spanning multiple genres but with a firm grounding in neofolk and atmospheric black metal, each album presents a haunting portrait of the Appalachian landscape as filtered through the mind of composer and multi-instrumentalist Ravenwood.

Switching between haunting acoustic instruments and low-fi, primitive black metal guitars and drums the album is intense in it's atmospheres. On the one hand serene and melancholic, while on the other insatiable and demonic. It is a formula that Ravenwood has been refining over the past few Twilight Fauna albums and it continues to pay off with his sprawling and progressive song construction tying the two halves of his sound together with ease.

Songs such as 'Walking With The Ghost', 'A Green Moth In The Mist', 'Anointing Oil', and 'Tongues Of Knowledge' weigh in with long-run times and perfectly encapsulate the coming together of the sounds as they meander through each. While the likes of 'Laying Out The Fleece' and 'A Glass Dalia' are shorter and as a result just favour the folk instruments which breaks up the track listing quite nicely and shifts the emphasis from the heavier elements.

Despite the many low-fi elements in the album, the mix is rather good. Again showing a progression from the last album the balance between melodic and harsh is a bit slicker this time round. As always atmosphere is king, but the subtlety at work in places shows the rough edges smoothing out slightly.

This is another beautiful album from Ravenwood. A great blend of melody and malady that pushes both folk and black metal into mutually beneficial directions. It's great to see this project grow in skill and scope and hopefully it will continue to do so for a long time to come.  

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Review: Twilight Fauna – 'Shadows Of Ancestors'

TWILIGHT FAUNA
'Shadows Of Ancestors'
SELF-RELEASED 

Blending the traditional folk local instruments with a low-fi black metal malevolence, Twilight Fauna continues to innovate and perplex with every release. The follow-up to last years 'Hymns Of A Forgotten Homeland', multi instrumentalist Ravenwood returns with 'Shadows Of Ancestors' to continue to explore his Appalachian home. Ambient, cinematic, hypnotic and still wonderfully savage. 'Shadows Of Ancestors' is an introspective and genuinely moving album that transcends it's black metal roots and builds on the foundations of its predecessor.

Songs such as 'Helical Rising', 'Boring The Augur', 'Meadows Afire' and, 'Cave of Kelpius (Women Of The Wild)' walk a fine line between ambient apocalyptic folk and depressive black metal malice with ease. The traditional folk elements give the tracks a warm underbelly while the hissed vocals and static-spewing guitars wrench them into the modern world kicking and screaming.

While the likes of 'Purging Of Spring' invert the formula somewhat bringing the folk guitar right to the fore. And the final track 'Coffin Nails And Apple Trees' crafts and epic slice of ambient metal meets black metal across it's ten minute length to perfectly distil these elements into a fitting album closer.

With it's roots in low-fi black metal this obviously hasn't got the slickest production job, but what has been done is nonetheless effective. Atmosphere is king despite whether the folk or metal instruments take the lead and even though it is rough and ready it is still a very evocative album.

Twilight Fauna will undoubtedly continue to split opinions with its experimental nature and low-fi style, which is a shame as a more succinct and polished production would still keep the core atmosphere alive but make the end result more accessible. But that's not the point. The point is that Twilight Fauna continues to improve as a project and is crafting some very interesting music that is begging to be explored.  

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Review: Twilight Fauna - 'Hymns Of A Forgotten Homeland'

TWILIGHT FAUNA
'Hymns Of A Forgotten Homeland'
FRAGILE BRANCH RECORDS

Appalachian one-man-band Twilight Fauna is a hard act to define. Sitting somewhere between neofolk and post-depressive black metal. Its a combination that is dark and abrasive yet strangely hypnotic. It will certainly prove to be an acquired taste, even amongst black metal fans, but it is a rewarding listen recalling a range of avant garde black metal acts such as Ulver and Caina in their more primitive forms.

The juxtaposition of the haunting and unmistakably US folk influenced acoustic guitars and the harsh vocals and guitars works well on songs such as 'Coming Home (A Wilted Harvest)', 'Baying In The Hills', and 'Roots Stained By Time' with their sparse use of percussion and long track lengths adding to the atmosphere. While the more melodic and overtly neofolk leaning 'An Autumn Longing' shows off an unobstructed view of Ravenwod's song writing skills.

However the two songs that really get the formula right have to be the final two 'The Wind Chimes Through The Trees' and 'Of River Willows' with both displaying a more succinct and well rounded style.

The production is rough. Very rough. In typical underground black metal style the guitars and scathing and the vocals sounded like they've been recorded on a Dictaphone in a forest. It has the right effect on the songs but at the cost of the overall accessibility of them, which is a shame, because a more spit and polish approach, as on the great sounding acoustic elements, would make all the difference.

'Hymns Of A Forgotten Homeland' is an interesting album that will probably pass a lot of people by. In part because of the obscure style, but also down to the overly raw production. Ravenwood has a good formula on his hands and his lyrics and writing style are very effective. It's certainly one to explore if you are a fan of black metal and neofolk, though perhaps to raw for the casual listener.

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