Season Of Arrows – Give It To The Mountain


Nashville, Tennessee is more traditionally known as the home of country music. But it’s also home to Season of Arrows, a Female-fronted doom outfit with a real knack for mixing swampy grooves with classic Heavy Metal Doom sensibilities.

Give it to the Mountain (Static Tension/Argonauta) is the quintet’s sophomore album a and sees the band turn the heaviness up a notch from their self-titled début effort. Not a million mile away from the likes of Witch Mountain, Devil’s Blood, or Heavy Temple, Season of Arrows main selling points are the Masses of Molasses-like riffs and vocalist Stormie Wakefield’s ability to croon, scream, and wail her way through the songs.

Opener ‘Farewell to the Horseman’ shows off all the best parts of the band: the ethereal melody, the big dirty riffs, and Wakefield’s epic wail. Combining heavy grooves as well as lighter moments, it’s a strong start that the rest of the album largely doesn’t live up to.

The haunting, heavy melody seven-minute ‘Autumn Wings’ is a real joy to listen to; Wakefield shines and the solos add a layer of beauty to the eeriness into something that almost echo’s Crowbar’s ability to combine the heavy yet morose in a way that’s melodic. ‘New Sorcery’ has an irresistible swagger about it, while closer ‘From the Wilderness We Return’ swings from quiet and haunting to a massive crescendo.

But there’s also moments that fail to hit those highs; ‘Deep Graves’ is a slow, crushing dirge; ‘Evening Lord’ is another snail-paced number that’s full of evil menace but doesn’t really leave much of an impression; and ‘The Bridge’ is the least interesting of the three long epic songs on the album.

If you’re after a hammering from endless dirty headbanging riffs, you could do a lot worse than Season of Arrows, though. Varied, heavy, yet surprisingly melodic in places, there’s plenty to like. But there’s not a huge amount that sets them apart in a crowded genre. Some truly epic moments, but plenty of forgettable ones.

6.0/10

DAN SWINHOE