wold: postsocial

Postsocial is the breathtaking eighth album from Wold, an infamous black metal unit with strong binds to the landlocked plains of Regina, Saskatchewan in central Canada. Stephen O'Malley's reissue of their Freermasonry LP first introduced us to their work -- subsequently igniting the most gratifying discovery of an exceptional back catalog. Postsocial is a culmination of ideas core to Wold's philosophy, heading deeper into a world of visceral howls and internalized harmonics. Due to the inherent limitations of vinyl, the album now unfolds in a different sequence to the CD, manifesting a crucially-altered beast. The two opening pieces, "Throwing Star" and "Inner Space Infirmary" remain in place, employing the eviscerated howl and cackle of clan leader Fortress Crookedjaw's possessed vocals and electronics in roiling, chokingly affective storm systems that leave us flayed and gasping. At this point the vinyl version inverts the tracklist, placing the aching atmospheric sehnsucht of "Sapphire Sect of Tubal Cain" at the cyclone's epicenter. On the B-side, the sustained intensity of "Five Points" and near 15 minutes of "Spiral Star Inversion" expand on the five-pointed star metaphor with labyrinthine results, culminating in "ritualistic conjuration and copulation of the hag," detailed further in the lyric sheet. To be honest, we'll probably never fully grasp this group: they remain a largely unquantifiable entity -- an enigmatic band with a genuinely original, inimitable, often impenetrable sound -- making them one of the most fascinating units operating in experimental music today, and marking Postsocial as an elementally rare, vital sensation which should resonate with myriad sub-cultures.