HARDWARES

Woods IV: The Green Album continues the Ypres tradition of alternating between black and doom efforts and The Green Album weighs heavily in the latter category (with, surprisingly, new elements of straight-up rock, to positive effect). Always a vehicle for Gold’s obvious equal love of Ulver’s early work, Darkthrone, My Dying Bride and Crowbar, Woods Of Ypres’ dual-natured personality allows Gold to deflect both his rage and pain on record and, oh boy, is The Green Album ever a manifest of hurt. Though dealing with the emotional turmoil of life all the way back to debut Against The Season’s 'A Meeting Place And Time', Woods Of Ypres heavily explores the theme again here and a quick glance at song titles 'And I Am Pining (For You)', 'You Are Here With Me (In This Sequence Of Dreams)', 'Don’t Open The Wounds' and 'Move On (The Woman Will Always Leave The Man)' gives a really clear indication of just what’s at stake on this record. Not quite the watershed that were Against The Seasons and Deepest Roots And Darkest Blues, The Green Album is nevertheless a well-written effort that will reward your investment of time in it: David Gold doesn’t write records for nothing, and The Green Album has added value to the Woods canon.