Old Growth - Mossweaver

With "Mossweaver" (2020), Old Growth has released an emotionally full, doom-tinged, folk-inspired black metal album.

It opens with a fabulous slow, sludgy, picked intro and some rock thrown in for good measure. Then, in ‘Oakenheart,’ the atmosphere gets thick and the metal styling eeks out a little more. But even with this track, the sudden slow sections are amazing.

I am willing to label this album as ‘doom.’ But, I would argue it is more of a metal-neo-folk than anything. The picked sections sound much more like Agalloch than anything I have heard of late. Especially in tracks such as ‘Red Clouds’ and ‘Queen Of The Woodland Realm.’

Don't get me wrong, Old Growth is a metal album, even blackened. But the slow, picked sections drag it into some other genre for sure. I appreciate the melancholy aspect of the slow riffs. The resultant tone is contemplative too, which makes me think the musicians are thinking between the sections when the lyrics come into the mix.

The final track, ‘Altar Of Wisdom,’ opens slowly, but then tightens and speeds up a lot by adding some extensive black metal sections. It makes for a superb closer sonically. I enjoyed listening to this album quite a bit.

5 / 5 STARS


1. Old Growth
2. Oakenheart
3. Red Clouds
4. The Seedling
5. Queen Of The Woodland Realm
6. Call Of The Night Spirit
7. Altar Of Wisdom