Listen to Woe’s Blistering New Song “The Din of the Mourning”

Woe have consistently been one of my favorite black metal bands of the past decade. Their 2008 release A Spell For the Death of Man is a modern-day classic, and I’ve closely followed everything since: Quietly, Undramatically (2010) and Withdrawal (2013). Main songwriter Chris Grigg has a knack for hooky but earthly and raw black metal that’s musically complex enough to keep things interested and doesn’t get bogged down overwrought grimness for the sake of grimness.

“The Din of the Mourning” [via Brooklyn Vegan] is actually the second track Woe have released from their forthcoming album Hope Attrition; “No Blood Has Honor” premiered on their Bandcamp page last month, but I was stuck inside the biggest Guitar Center ever just trying to survive, so I missed it. Unsurprisingly, Woe have lost absolutely none of their potency and urgency: these tracks sound fantastic, and remind me why I liked this band so much in the first place. Four years is a long time to wait between albums, and I can already tell this one’s going to be in regular rotation for a while.

Woe 2017 features longtime contributing bassist Grzesiek Czapla, guitarist Matt Mewton, and drummer Lev Weinstein (also of Krallice). Hope Attrition comes out on March 17th.