Review: Cwfen – Sorrows
Highland Doomgazing
Recently, there’s been an interesting trend of ‘doomgaze’ bands making an impact with a sound that mixes up doom, shoegaze, gothic and post-punk. Several bands in particular include the likes of Faetooth, King Woman, Iress and Chelsea Wolfe making their names in that area. Now here’s a new band who have been growing themselves a reputation in the underground. Cwfen—hailing from Glasgow, Scotland—take their name from “coven” in Welsh, and are about to release their debut album, Sorrows, after forming the band two years ago.
The album starts off with a haunting ambient sound as an intro known as “Fragment I,” one of the three short ambient tracks with the “Fragment” name. This blends greatly into the opening track “Bodies,” setting up perfectly well the tone you’re going to expect from Cwfen which is haunting, spooky and atmospheric. The vocal range from Agnes Alder is really interesting and impressive at the same time. The next song “Wolfsbane” shows off more of an occultist vibe in the lyrics and vocals. The riffs on this track are also very nice and soothing throughout.
There’s more of a post-punk note here with the track “Reliks”—especially guitar-wise—that has an atmospheric, soothing and fuzzy vibe that mixes well together. The further talk about how good Agnes’ vocal range is can be seen in this track, especially with her execution of harsh screams at the end. The next song “Whispers” comes out with a great drum opening and the guitars display their atmospheric edge brilliantly here. The vocals also do a great job in showing a haunting vibe that thrives in this song.
The next interlude,“Fragment II,” gives you time to breathe before jumping into what’s probably the heaviest track of the album with “Penance.” The guitars go hard on the doom vibe here and mix greatly with the vocals that shows off the range of screams and the haunting singing. Another interlude which sounds like stormy weather titled “Fragment III” comes after this which is probably a little too much after a previous interlude, but that’s a nitpick on my side of things.
This blends well into the next track “Embers,” which has another strong vocal performance from Agnes. The doom riffs on this one also hit pretty hard; overall, it does feel like the second half of the album is a bit heavier overall. However, this doesn’t take away anything from the first half of the album. Finishing off Sorrows comes “Rite” which closes off on a high, epic note—while the riffs do go back to their atmospheric element here, they do go hard as well here. An epic ending to an exciting journey that I’ve had from listening to this record.
What a great debut album Sorrows ended up being. The Scottish doomgazers execute their sound greatly with its atmosphere and the sense of haunting you feel when listening to this. Add in the strong vocal range throughout the album from Agnes, whether it’s a haunting high note or a nicely done harsh scream that would be welcome in any black metal album, it’s range like hers that really makes it. I highly recommend this if you want a more occult and witchy vibe that brings the best elements of doom as well as its gothic and post-punk elements which blend in really well for what they’re going for. Cwfen are certainly going to be a band to look out for this year with this debut.
4/5 Flaming Toilets ov Hell
Sorrows releases May 30 via New Heavy Sounds.
