France-based blackened doom industrialists Wolok have transformed into its most potent form on new album, The Bilious Hues Of Gloom. Whereas previous albums–Fading Mirth & Dry Heaves and Caput Mortuum–touched on the oddities of black metal’s outer rim, the group’s latest pulls in from space and posits its victims dead center of post-apocalyptic inner cities. There’s no light, no hope, all corroding, corrupting, and decaying in real time.
Much of The Bilious Hues Of Gloom is built upon the foundations of avant-garde, predominantly French black metal. The wisps of Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord, and Blacklodge are found coursing through Wolok’s veins, but the main tendrils of desolation are harder to pin down. Less of a sound, tracks like “The Slough Of Despond,” “Yellow Bile,” and “Downfallen” are more of a vibe, baleful, cold, stark, and violent. To wit, the terrible trio responsible for such metallic entropy are simply called L. (nausea, heaves, vomit), C. (maestro, emetic tempo), and E. (conception, strings, cacophony).
“After two years of chaotic gestation, we are proud to unveil the full stream of our new album, The Bilious Hues Of Gloom. It was recorded in weird conditions and spirituous solitude during those sick lockdown periods… hence the fucked-up tunes. Once again, we may catch our fans off guard as this record is quite different from what we used to offer in the past. We tried to explore various facets of black/doom/punk extemporizations, resulting in manic sounds, dissonance and bilious thematics. We are aware that our music does not appeal to untrained brains and we wish to sincerely pay tribute to Brucia Records, who dared to release that tormenting oddity.”
Wallow in Wolok’s crushing scorn… There is no escape.