Woods Of Ypres/David Gold News, Including Their Last Concert & Much More!!

We haven't done one of these for a while, but with news piling up, now's as good a time as ever to devote a single post to defunct local blackened doom metal band Woods of Ypres and their late frontman David Gold! In this post, we have some newly discovered reviews of their last album, updates on the upcoming Woods of Ypres tribute album & the songs to be included, a new interview with one of the band's last members, and leading things off, a very special audio upload from last summer, so here's what you need to know!

An audio recording of Woods of Ypres' last live concert has been posted online! A user on the website Reddit named Nikolai77 recorded the audio from their 45 minute set at Strange Matter in Richmond, Virginia on June 9th, 2011, and uploaded to MediaFire shortly afterwards with permission from David Gold, and with it making the rounds online, I thought it deserved a spotlight on the SMS! In their final concert, Woods of Ypres played (in order) "The Sea of Immeasurable Loss", "The Sun Was In My Eyes (Part 1)", "Falling Apart", "By The Time You Read This (I Will Already Be Dead)", "Wet Leather", and "Awaiting The Inevitable", with "Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)" as an encore, making that the last song they ever played on stage. If you're curious, there's no foreshadowing to David Gold's death in the on-stage banter, and the "inevitable end" referred to before "Awaiting The Inevitable" was clearly relating to their tour & set that night, so don't read into everything for stuff that isn't there. The audio quality is pretty good, and Woods of Ypres sounded as brutal as they ever did in their doom era, though it'd have been cool to have heard at least one "Woods III" song or "A Meeting Place & Time" at this show.

This is a very important piece of media, especially knowing that this was the last time a live audience saw Woods of Ypres or David Gold live on stage, so I highly recommend downloading this file to check out Woods of Ypres' final concert, which you can do at this location! I hope video footage turns up of it if at all possible, but this will do for now. Extreme kudos to Nikolai77 for the upload!

Also in Woods of Ypres-related news, a new interview/article with final drummer Rae Amitay has been posted online to check out as well! Conducted by Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles journalist Carl Begai and posted on his website on Friday, the article features Rae talking about her brief tenure with Woods of Ypres (which ended before they could announce that she'd joined) and the aftermath and related events in 2012. Rae discussed how she got involved in performing at the Ypres Metal Fest in Sault Ontario in April, how important it was for guitarist Joel Violette to be a part, thoughts on how that and the Toronto tribute show went, how she joined Woods of Ypres, the rough plans for 2012 had David lived into the new year, her musical past and influences, if she was intimidated playing in a band with another accomplished drummer, her favourite Woods material to play, the end of the band, and her current plans. In terms of new developments, the biggest thing revealed is that Rae has replaced David as the drummer in Joel Violette's black metal project Thrawsunblat, which I figured might happen, and she's a perfect choice to take over knowing how connected to Woods of Ypres she's become in such a short time!

This is another great Woods of Ypres article from Carl Begai, and it's nice to see how much Woods of Ypres can impact it's members, no matter how brief their tenure was! Though I'd love to hear Brendan Hayter's views on everything that's happened since November as well, Rae gave some great insights into the last while as a Woods of Ypres member and fan, and I bet she'd have been a quality addition had she been able to play with them this year! Head to this location for the full article!

Also today, here's more updates on "A Heart of Gold: A Tribute to Woods of Ypres"! The planned David Gold/Woods of Ypres tribute album is still very much in progress with some of the covers finished and sent for inclusion, and a reportedly final track listing has been released to both the album's Facebook group and brand new Facebook page. 21 songs by 21 acts are now confirmed, making this a likely double album, and the confirmed bands include Novembers Doom, Empyrean Plague, Gypsy Chief Goliath, Eclipse Eternal, Pagan Ritual, Panzerfaust, and local death metal quintet The Bear Hunters covering the songs they played at the David Gold tribute concerts, along with Woods alums Joel Violette & Rae Amitay playing "Silver" from "Woods V" (they played that at the local tribute show too), along with numerous other talented bands from many different regions. Notably, Novembers Doom frontman Paul Kuhr will join up with Will Bozarth for a cover of "Finality" under the band name Kuhrzarth, which sounds intriguing! If you're wondering, the track listing is broken down very evenly across Woods of Ypres' discography, with 4 songs each coming from all of their main albums except "Woods IV" (which has 3 represented tracks), while both songs from their "Home" single are also being covered.

Also of note: 9 of the 12 "Woods I-III" tracks being covered were included on the "Independent Nature" compilation album they put out in 2009, so I imagine David would likely approve of the final track listing. This sounds like a great compilation, and I hope this album is a huge hit when it comes out, which apparently may include a CD release party in Toronto, so stay tuned for updates as they roll in, and I've added the tribute album's Facebook page to our "Other Local Metal Links", as it's completely in honour of the music and compositions of a local metal great!

And finally, here's some more reviews of Woods of Ypres' final recorded album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light"! On June 20th, DarkNoctus from the metal website Sputnik Music gave "W5" an average rating of 2.5/5, calling it "not bad, not good", though admitting it was much better than it's predecessors, which he didn't like (especially "Woods IV".) I appreciate his candor, but I disagree with his older album views, while liking his views on what improved and what could have lied ahead, so check out this review by clicking here! In a more positive review, "psorbh09" from the blog Ether Load Crunch gave "Woods V" 4 stars out of 5 on April 27th, calling it "an allegory of truths, questions, and living", while praising it's themes and messages, though the lack of criticisms doesn't gel with the rating. Nice review, so check it out at this location! Finally for today, Andy Turner from the metal website Bigger Than Satan gave the album a 4.5/5 rating in a review last month, calling "Woods V" a "fitting memorial to David Gold", while drawing attention to the upbeat yet dark nature of the album and a belief that the album is in tribute to David. Nice high praise (though he credited their last full lineup for this album when Brendan & Rae didn't perform on the CD), so click here to read this new review, and stay tuned for more at some point!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for a full news post later tonight! Thanks everyone!

David Gold/Woods Of Ypres Updates, News, Videos, And Reviews!!

It's time for another news post at the SMS, and today, the focus is 100% on local blackened doom metal band Woods of Ypres and their late frontman David Gold, as a lot of news from and about them has came my way in the past week! So for this post, we have some new "Woods V" CD reviews, an awesome new live video, and leading things off, all the details and revelations from a great (but long) new interview article about David and the band, so read on below, and check out this month's YouTube Channel Profile on Candle Hour's YouTube channel below this post!

A lengthy new article by Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles journalist Carl Begai about the late David Gold was posted online at his official website yesterday, and it's definitely worth a read! Entitled "WOODS OF YPRES - Gold And Grey", the article features some personal rememberances about David and the work he put into Woods Of Ypres' final recorded album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light", but the bulk of this article features interview segments with three people very close to David during the "W5" recording sessions: Kittie frontwoman Morgan Lander, "Woods V" producer Siegfried Meier, and Woods of Ypres guitarist/studio bassist Joel Violette. In Morgan's third of the article, it's revealed that she hooked up David with Siegfried for production of "W5", and she discussed how she helped and remembered David during the recording sessions and songwriting for the album, her perceptions of the writing process when she was in the Soo for a week last summer, and some thoughts on the new album. Siegfried Meier's chunk of the article features info on how he met David, the interactions and recording process from Beach Road Studios in Goderich last August, his impressions of the material and lyrics, and the significance of the major storm that hit that area during the sessions.

Joel Violette's interview/discussion ends this article, where he mentions how he met David, their work together in Thrawsunblat and how he eventually joined Woods of Ypres, his inclusion in Woods of Ypres songwriting, the sound of "Woods V" and their interaction with Earache Records, and the band's future. That all alone is an awesome read, but there's also some scattered references to what lies ahead as well that I should emphasize. Morgan Lander confirmed that Kittie will cover Woods of Ypres material at both the Ypres Metal Fest in Sault Ontario on April 7th and the David Gold memorial concert/"W5" CD release show in Toronto on April 5th, and she thinks David would like the songs she picked to cover. Good to hear, and it's nice to see that she credited Dismembertainment's Rich Moreland in the article for booking the local memorial concert too! In terms of the memorial concerts, Joel confirmed that he and Woods of Ypres' final drummer Rae Amitay will perform an acoustic tribute set at the Soo show on April 7th, with both he & Rae handling vocals (no word on if bassist Brendan Hayter will be a part, or if a similar set will happen in Toronto.) He also noted that the yet-to-be-revealed "W5" song "Keeper of the Ledger" is the "densest & lushest" song on the album, and Earache had originally wanted it as a bonus track rather than an official credited song, though it's on the official release as it "encompasses everything Woods had done before" and brings it full circle.

Finally to note on this article, Joel addressed the band's future and his press release following David's death, including criticism about a statement he made implying that the band could continue without David. Joel confirmed that he just wanted to put hope into the situation rather than just giving an abrupt goodbye, and noted old plans for a "Woods VI", but he added that without David, you can't write a new Woods of Ypres album. What he did say was that an acoustic piano-based tribute album of Woods of Ypres re-workings could possibly come out, and it's the only thing Joel could see releasing posthumously under the Woods name. This is a great article that Carl compiled, and it has a lot of great remembrances and information about David, Woods of Ypres, and what lies ahead, though I hope (if nothing else) that a Woods of Ypres rarities album comes out as well in the future, as I know there's unreleased quality material from past sessions that'd be cool to see released to fans. Aside from that, everything seems well at hand to keep David's memory alive and reach "Woods V" to a wider audience, and hopefully the good vibes continue for a long time to come! Remember to check out Carl's full article at this location, but be warned, it's fairly lengthy, but worth a read!

Next up in Woods of Ypres news, remember in June when some awesome professionally filmed footage of the band playing "Falling Apart" in St. Paul, Minnesota was posted online? With it's multiple camera angles and professional quality, it was among the best quality videos I've ever seen of a local band. Now, Rusty Nuts Productions are giving us the entire concert from that night's show to watch on YouTube, as posted to their YouTube channel on Monday! Filmed at Station 4 in St. Paul on May 14th, this comprises of the band's entire 65 minute set from this concert on their final "Pain & Piss" tour, and in this video, you'll see Woods of Ypres play (in order) "The Sea of Immeasurable Loss", "The Sun Was In My Eyes (Part 1)", "By The Time You Read This (I Will Already Be Dead)", "Pining (For You)", "Wet Leather", "Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)", "Halves & Quarters", "Falling Apart", and "Awaiting The Inevitable", followed by "A Meeting Place & Time" as an encore. The video even ends with credits to the filmers and most (if not all) former Woods of Ypres members, though oddly with a rap song as backing music. This is an exceptional live video from Woods of Ypres' last live run, and this may be the last full concert shot from David's lifetime, so it's definitely all the more interesting to check out! This is great stuff and very professionally filmed, so check out Woods of Ypres live in Minnesota below!



And finally for this all Woods/David post, here's a few more reviews of "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light"! On Monday, "Metal" Matt Longo from the website Mind Over Metal gave "W5" a perfect 5/5 despite the eeriness of some of the songs, praising songs like "Adora Vivos" for harkening back to earlier material, while calling the whole album a "melancholic manifesto of torture and tumult" and the band's finest record. Nice review with personal reflections, so give it a look at this location! On February 9th, Phil Kane from MetalTalk.net gave "Woods V" a favourable review, saying it's "pretty heavy shit" and praising it's mesages and atmosphere, while still calling it "strangely misunderstood" and not for fans of their early material. Good review, click here to give it a look! In January, Russian metal site Truemetalheadz gave this album a favourable review as well in a two part post, calling it the best album of their career that doesn't lose momentu, but warns that you have to be in a certain mood to enjoy it. Another solid review, though oddly formatted, so click here to read it! Finally, Encyclopaedia Metallum user TikrasTamsusNaktis gave "Woods V" an 80% rating, calling it excellent but different, and though he thought it was their most accessible album, it also had ominous and eerie lyrics relating to David's death. Well written review, so head to this link to check it out, and stay tuned for more "Woods V" reviews to come!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews either tomorrow or Friday, and much more news to come as we slowly wrap up February! Thanks everyone!