Review: Wandering Oak – Resilience

Style: Folk Metal, Black Metal, Thrash Metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: (early) Amorphis, Immortal, Borknagar, Ensiferum
Country: New York, United States
Release date: 02 February 2024

Metal is inherently a genre of tension: many subgenres have at their foundation a balancing act they must perform, whether it be one of consonance and dissonance, intensity and melodicism, or polish and live feel. Folk metal is a special case as it often sits with all of the above tensions in some form, and presents its own set of unique songwriting challenges. So, how well does Resilience, the latest folk metal output from Wandering Oak, manage the tightrope balance of blackened thrash metal and folk?

In contrast to Agalloch’s approach of thoroughly integrating folk and metal instrumentation, blurring the lines between what is folk and what is metal, Wandering Oak’s balancing act manifests itself in Lör-style compositions: the quieter folk sections act as a point of contrast to the buzzing and muscly metal sections, served in a satisfyingly rough-around-the-edges package. There is a spectacular balance of polish and raw, organic instrumentation, as the playing is markedly cleaner during the more demanding black metal moments compared to their debut Passage Elemental, the harsh vocal delivery is expressive and varied, and the clean vocals are a bit unpolished but endearingly so. Wandering Oak made sure not to clean all the moss off of Resilience, and the album is better for it.

“To Lir They Fell” is an excellent example of Wandering Oak’s ability to balance the core components of their sound: introducing the album with gentle waves and quickly building into a tasty second-wave black metal riff, the song explores the aftermath of a tragic shipwreck and the exodus of the surviving loved ones. Over its runtime, there are tasteful transitions between aggressive metal sections and downtempo, mystical folk sections, only changing after an idea has had enough time to cook properly. Not only does this song indulge in moments of vivid prosody, it establishes the overall lyrical theme of Resilience: perseverance in the face of tragedy. Another great example is the following track, “A Florid Grain,” which slowly builds itself up from quiet and meditative folk passages into a blazing progressive thrash metal conclusion, like a barren wintry field violently erupting into colorful blooms over the course of spring. I also applaud them for experimenting with creepier and quasi-dissonant ideas on “Vespertine”.

Unfortunately, not all sits in harmonious dualism on Resilience: there are moments across the runtime where Wandering Oak stumble their balancing act, whether it be from leaning too heavily into thrash instrumentation without proper respite or hyperfocusing on moment-to-moment songwriting in favor of overall composition. For example, while the closer “Snowbound” presents many excellent individual moments, even allowing the bass to shine near its conclusion, I struggle to find a narrative structure that satisfyingly ties together each moment. Moreover, the title track sits firmly in the realm of thrash metal with little to no folk exploration without enough heft to back itself up entirely on thrash and similarly suffers from the moment-by-moment compositional approach of “Snowbound”. There are great ideas that are revisited across its runtime, but these ideas don’t present themselves until the latter half of the track, leaving me wanting either a song centralized on these more compelling riffs or simply cut down in length.

Resilience presents a marked improvement in polish from Passage Elemental, but is ultimately a mix of rousing successes and missteps in execution. Many elements of Wandering Oak’s sound work to the band’s advantage, from the enjoyable lyrics that tie together otherwise disparate vignettes into one overarching lyrical theme to their ability to excellently balance folk and blackened thrash. However, some work is needed on balancing singular moments with compositional narrative, as tracks occasionally lose the plot to the detriment of the album as a whole.

Recommended tracks: To Lir They Fell, A Florid Grain, Vespertine
You may also like: Lör, Perihelion Ship, Helstar
Final verdict: 6.5/10

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Label: Independent Release

Wandering Oak is:
– Robert Bruce Pollard (vocals, guitars, lyrics)
– Deidre House (bass)
– CW Dunbar (drums)