Premiere: Wills Dissolve Summon a Prog Death Firestorm
I know it’s hard to elicit excitement for a premiere of a debut album since, ya know, you haven’t heard of them before, but what if I told you it’s HECKIN’ GOOD!?
Texas’ Wills Dissolve take a sort of Opethian approach to songwriting with a hypnotic repeating melodies, but with one major difference: they don’t linger on one riff forever. Mixed into their style is just about anything that could possibly sound good with obvious doom, black, and prog influences. The Heavens are Not on Fire stuns with solos, crushes with blast beats, and blindsides with range.
I’m excited to premiere my favorite track “On This Cold November Night”. It kicks off sounding like a track off Damnation, with an Akerfeldt croon over a clean guitar tone, but quickly meanders in to a beautiful solo with a drum fill that refuses to quit. Harsh vocals take the lead for a minute before a cathartic pulsing riff enters followed by yet another solo. It’s a wild ride!
A major theme of the album, highlighted by the track names, is the Leonid meteor showers and their presumably mind-blowing effects on the spectators in 1833, who had yet to learn the exact nature of the phenomenon. The sort of phantasmagoric feeling is reflected perfectly in both melodic introspective and raw fearful moments. They also don’t shy away from shaming the grifters who try to use the unknown to strike fear in the gullible for their personal gain, which is a pretty great theme.
The production is a bit raw for their incredibly dynamic breadth, but for a self-released debut, the undeniable writing talent is impossible to miss. Go grab it on Bandcamp for just a few bucks when it releases on October 26.
