My Silent Wake – Walls Within Walls – Single Review

My Silent Wake – one of the UK’s premier death/doom outfits – will return in early 2018 with their 9th full length and while they’re known for flip-flopping between ambient releases and full blown death/doom albums, fans of the ‘heavy’ can rest assured that Ian Arkley‘s (Seventh Angel, Century Sleeper, ex-Paramaecium) band of un-merry men are back to their deathly best!

How do we know? Just one listen to the semi-symphonic, straight-up ball-crusher that is “Walls Within Walls” should allay any fears that MSW have forgotten how to deliver a death/doom masterclass. This new track is as blunt as My Silent Wake get, revealing itself to be a relatively streamlined, quick-paced battlecry and one that’s a little more death than doom. As an indicator of what to expect from the new album, we would guess that Walls Within Walls is not representative of the new material as a whole. Instead, this is primed to suck you in before MSW’s expansive sound reveals itself on the album proper. These guys are beloved for their ornate gothic beauty and ability to transport the listener to otherworldly realms, and this is just a taster of what’s to come!

2015’s Damnatio Memoriae proved to be My Silent Wake’s heaviest, most impressive album to date but all that looks set to change when There Was Death arrives early next year. With sojourns into more epic spheres of influence more or less a guarantee on the forthcoming There Was Death, for now we’ll happily settle on repeatedly listening to “Walls Within Walls” in order to get our My Silent Wake fix! 8/10

My Silent Wake’s There Was Death comes out early next year on CD, double vinyl and download.