Bell Witch / Aerial Ruin - Stygian Bough: Volume I (Album Review)

Bell Witch/Aerial Ruin - Stygian Bough: Volume I

Release date: 26/6/2020

Label: Profound Lore Records

By: P.S.

Funeral-doom band Bell Witch is a two piece band out of Seattle, Washington. It is Dylan Desmond on bass and vocal with Jesse Shreibman on drums and vocals. They have released 3 albums with the most noticeable one being 2017’s Mirror Reaper. Now they are ready with their follow-up album, which is a collaboration album with folk musician Erik Moggridge from Aerial Ruin.

Now, first of all, if you are a big fan of Mirror Reaper and are hoping that this is Mirror Reaper part two, then you are in for a bit of a surprise here, because that is NOT what this is. In fact this is much more a Aerial Ruin folk-metal style album. The acoustic guitar plays a very big role and almost all of the songs and music is really centered around that. There are still parts of the album where you can hear the deep doomy vocals and crushing bass tones, but they are definitely not the important part. It is only there to support the folk vibes of the album, and from a production view it works perfect; It is very clear that this album was about a concept and not about the artist showing off. You get the sense of being taken on a journey both through the cosmos and dark woods. That is well on display in the album's opening track “The Bastard Wind” where we start the song of with Aerial Ruin’s acoustic guitar that starts us off nice and slow. The vocals are whispered to you and the doom riff hits with a deep bass, and the vocals becomes deeper along with the music. This is where the first surprise hits; A small but very well pleasing guitar solo comes in, only to disappear again which fits the song very well. I would have liked to hear where this a little bit more on.

Erik Moggridge - Aerial Ruin

The next track, “Heavens Torn Low I (The Passage)”, is where we really get introduced to the amazing acoustic guitar play of Aerial Ruin. The song starts with this dreamlike acoustic guitar play which really bring all emotions up in you. The beautiful vocals that are on top of the music gave me a lump in my throat and really brought up some sad and mixed feelings, a very emotional and powerful song.

On the next song, ”Heavens Torn Low (The Toll)”, we are introduced to the funeral doom we know and love Bell Witch for; the deep bass and organ makes it a dark song, that has a very classic funeral doom vibe to it.

The next track “Prelude” is a very beautiful song and the song on the album where you most clearly can hear the collaboration come to life. It is an instrumental song where there’s perfect harmony between the acoustic guitar play of Aerial Ruin and the organ play of Bell Witch this is also the song that sets us up for the big finish to the album, “The Unbodied Air”. In this song, we are reintroduced to the guitar and the deep doom vocals. Then, everything goes very silent and you can only hear the organ playing and then the high clear singing comes to slowly take you back to the same mood has one the track “Heavens Torn Low I (The Passage)”. The distorted guitar returns to send us off with a very bright and light look.

As for highlights, I would have to say it is just the flow of the album, and you don't even notice when you go from one song to another which I think this is the perfect way to follow up on such a masterpiece as Mirror Reaper; To not just release a successor like many may have expected. Keep in mind that this album is just “part one” in its title, so who knows, part two may be the follow up to Mirror Reaper, which would bring back those cold and dark funeral doom parts that made that album such a haunting piece of music.

Bell Witch

In conclusion, this album is a great album on its own and i highly recommend it. The one thing I think is a problem on this album is that there are none of the really heavy funeral doom riffs that we heard on Mirror Reaper and I really miss that because that is what got me in to Bell Witch in the first place.

I give this album