Label: Century Media
Release date: January 7, 2022
Production: Wilderun, Jens Bogren, Tony Lindgren
Album length: 01:06:35
Wilderun, an American progressive metal band from Boston, have been around since roughly 2008. Their first album came out in 2012, but the band didn’t really get much attention until 2019, when their breakthrough third studio album Veil of Imagination dropped. Critics received it pretty well, but it was the prog metal fans who really put them on a pedestal. Wilderun started out playing folk metal in a more progressive way, and before long people were saying the band stands for what Opeth no longer are. Wilderun took the golden era of Opeth as their main inspiration, but approached it just a little differently. Century Media also sniffed out the band’s innovation and potential and, of course, signed them. With their fourth album Wilderun are no longer independent, but (luckily) their creative freedom hasn’t been taken away.
About three years after Veil of Imagination, Wilderun are back with their fourth full-length, which is in its own way a test of whether the band can keep their agenda going. The big question is whether the predecessor was just that one career-defining masterpiece, or whether Wilderun can actually carry on and take the listener on another epic journey.
Epigone opens promisingly with the gentle acoustic track Exhaler, where you can already tell the album is very likely going to be an interesting trip for fans of progressive and unconventional music. The band weaves in extra instruments, but keeps things tender, and above all sets you up for the destruction that may follow. With the 14-minute Woolgatherer, the band shows what they’re really made of. The structure of the song is pretty complex, with many different elements woven in. You can hear calmer folk elements as well as pompous ones, since there’s no shortage of orchestration. The melodic vocals are more up front, but there’s already some growling in there too. Woolgatherer, which is also the longest track on the album, throws a lot of information at you, and you can feel the band is incredibly creative. Wilderun confirm how special they are very quickly, because you never know where they’ll take you, not just with the song as a whole but even with the very next passage.
With the slightly shorter Passenger, Wilderun prove their brilliance again, expertly interlacing gentler and harsher parts with crafty passages. The orchestral section with blast beats even brings Devin Townsend to mind, and there’s also a solo that sounds like it came straight from Opeth. Above all, the symphonic ending deserves praise, and it’s undoubtedly epic. Wilderun carry on in a similar vein with Identifier, where for more than half the song it seems like it’ll be a purely melodic track with singing up front, but as an element of surprise Wilderun throw in death metal, with deep growls to boot.
The four-part Distraction (I,II,III & Nulla) is a chapter of its own. Wilderun don’t stray from their original style, though. They approach the first part in a calmer way before moving into a powerful orchestral finish. The second part is probably the hardest-hitting track on the whole album. There are some melodic vocals too, but here a heavy guitar riff with a earth-shaking rhythm section takes center stage. Logically, the third part of Distraction serves as a comedown. It might have been the ideal way to close the album, with its gentle strings and melodic guitar. But that would have been too pretty. Distraction Nulla is chaotic and dissonant. You honestly don’t know what the band is trying to say with it, but it feels unconventional, and above all Wilderun flip the bird to a predictable, Disney-style happy ending. You could also consider the bonus Everything In Its Right Place the ending, a Radiohead cover that’s of course reworked in an original Wilderun way.
In just one hour, Wilderun undoubtedly win us over with Epigone. The album is packed with information, and it takes several listens because there’s so much unpredictability. You could find something to nitpick, like that it’s too long and drawn out, but the thing still makes sense and feels well thought out. Epigone undoubtedly delights with its beauty, melody, darkness, brutality and inventiveness. The album is also distinguished by top-notch production and sound. Wilderun can definitely satisfy plenty of prog listeners who swear by Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Devin Townsend and others. Just like its predecessor Veil of Imagination, Epigone can be predicted to land on many best-albums-of-2022 lists.
9/10
Tracklist:
- Exhaler
- Woolgatherer
- Passenger
- Identifier
- Ambition
- Distraction I
- Distraction II
- Distraction III
- Distraction Nulla
- Everything In Its Right Place
Lineup:
Evan Anderson Berry – vocals, acoustic and electric guitar
Dan Müller – bass, keyboards, dulcimer
Jon Teachey – drums
Joe Gettler – lead guitar
Wayne Ingram – guitar, mandolin, lap steel guitar
