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Hollywood, California’s Willow Wisp has existed as a whipping post, an underground punchline for as long as I’ve been listening to extreme metal. I can only conjecture that it’s the unabashed gothic and symphonic leanings of the band’s black metal variant – the Cradleesque, tongue-in-painted-cheek theatrics of it all – that drive people to chortling and rage alike. Is it silly? No question, and so is nearly everything you and I listen to on a regular basis. My devil’s advocacy aside, Willow Wisp is a competent and proficient entity in its chosen realm, especially at a time when symphonic black metal is relatively thin on the ground as opposed to the signing craze du jour that it once was. I can take more than a good amount of Enmity, even though it’s a bit of a chore with an hour-long running time and is admittedly plagued with the COF and Type O derivations that have been practically encoded in Willow Wisp’s DNA. Like the former, this is one group that just doesn’t know when enough is enough, cramming every possible idea into every nook and cranny of a given song at the expense of coherence, taste and playability. The dancefloor synthpop and Santana interludes are just bizarre, the vocal bellows and shrieks can induce laughter on the wrong day, the CD booklet is cheaply done and the ten-minute song is inexcusable, but I’m still on board. I admire the bravery and tenacity, and I look forward to seeing what this most ill-regarded and ill-conceived of bands will do next.
| Tracklist |
| 1. The Anatomist |
| 2. My Ossuary Covered In Urine |
| 3. Morgue Circus (Planet Star) |
| 4. A Bleak Future Awaits |
| 5. Heart Of A Poet, Mind Of A Madman |
| 6. Oddmans's Cryptic Revelations |
| 7. Incinerator Bound |
| 8. A Sword In The Sea |
| 9. Inner Child, Long Dead |
| 10. An Ode To Those Accused Of Being Witches |
: 58:21
| Buy other Willow Wisp albums |
