Album review | Wold, “Freermasonry”

Brian Charlton
Contributing Writer

“Freermasonry” is the sixth album from Wold, a black metal/noise group from the great white North.

One of the colloquial criticisms of the noise genre as a form of music is that, because of its apparently amorphous structure, it must be prosaic and easily replicated. Wold would be one of the few exceptions where this replication could not be easily executed. It would be really hard to be this degree of incoherent and chaotic successfully.

I understand that this might be the point, though. It sounds as if they are trying to harness the power of chaos and put it into a subjective musical ball of spiritual experimentation. Noise music, if done correctly, should retain some essence of mystery, some noise of the unknown. Wold figured out a way to keep subtle melody, the blown-out tones of their electronics, blasted lyrical conceit based on masonry chants and Biblical scriptures, all coalescing into weirdly seductive rhythms. But then, as comparable to the big bang, when these elements of understanding start to form, they are obliterated and all essence of familiarity slips from one’s conscious mind.

At first “Freermasonry” can seem comparable to a holy man spilling the blood of your innocent ears as a sacrifice to the antichrist, but whether it is in fire or brimstone, the album breathes. Upon close scrutiny there is some beauty brewing in the underbelly of a seemingly brutal and devastating sermon, to which by the end you may believe in something grander than yourself. (It may or may not be in a divine power, however.)

There is an adventure in this album, and as in “The Lord of the Rings,” it ends with fat eagles grasping you from the clutches of a dizzying Mordor.

2/5 stars