photos by Stephen Fletcher
“Under Lanternlight” is the latest harbinger from Manchester’s savage sons, WODE, preceding the black metal cult’s impending fourth album, Uncrossing The Keys, nearing release on 20 Buck Spin.
Uncrossing The Keys marks a confident expansion of WODE’s already formidable sound, built upon a shadowy foundation of feral black metal and ironclad heavy metal heft. Having evolved from the more straightforward methodology of the debut album, the band has continuously added elements from various dark corners of the underground across its discography, with songwriting that has grown leaner yet more intricate, focused and melodic than ever.
Uncrossing The Keys hasn’t softened WODE’s music, the sound remains steeped in flame and fury, but they’ve embraced a wider spectrum of moods, painting with blacker, richer hues than ever before. Jagged post-punk/goth leanings bleakly shine on new tracks like “Saturn Shadow” and the dreamy trance of atmospheric instrumental “Phantom.” The doomier pace and majestically pensive mood of single “Transmutation” recalls both Paradise Lost and Amorphis with its somber undercurrent, while the morosely anthemic “Under Lanternlight” is suffused with dynamic melodies in its Sentenced-like composition style. Guitars carry a mournful shimmer at times, their hooks laced with both melancholy and menace, drifting above the carnage with moments of elegiac beauty and dark lamentation. The hellish rasp of the vocals rise like ritual chants from another age.
Conjuring visions of a world perpetually on the edge of twilight, WODE casts a long, cold silhouette over the course of Uncrossing The Keys’ nine tracks. There’s a sense of both grandeur and decay, as though the band opened a gateway to a realm where cursed cities smolder under blood-red skies, their walls echoing forsaken hymns eternally. The result of a constant evolutionary process WODE has crafted a truly haunted and commanding blackened heavy metal that raises a dark banner high over a vast and desolate kingdom.
Uncrossing The Keys was recorded and mixed by James Atkinson at The Stationhouse (Carcass, Angel Witch), mastered by Magnus Lindberg (Tribulation, Wolfbrigade, Lucifer), and completed with artwork by Set33, photography by Stephen Fletcher, and layout/design by Envoy Of Death. Fans of Sentenced, Tribulation, Paradise Lost, Samael, Dissection, Tiamat, Melechesh, and Rotting Christ, should not sleep on WODE’s Uncrossing The Keys.
WODE’s “Under Lanternlight” is now streaming on YouTube HERE and at Bandcamp HERE.
Uncrossing The Keys will be released October 3rd, on LP, CD, MC, and digital formats. Preorders have been posted at the 20 Buck Spin webshop HERE and Bandcamp where “Transmutation” is also streaming HERE.
WODE continues booking tour dates across the European continent, having just announced a hometown release show for the album on September 27th alongside several other new tour dates throughout the Fall. See the current roster below and expect additional shows to be added.
WODE Live:
9/27/2025 The Bread Shed – Manchester, UK *album release show [info]
10/03/2025 The Attic – Glasgow, UK [info]
10/04/2025 The Lubber Fiend – Newcastle, UK [info]
10/12/2025 The Gryphon – Bristol, UK [info]
10/24/2025 Boom – Leeds, UK [info]
10/26/2025 Siege Of Limerick – Limerick City, IE [info]
12/05-06/2025 De Mortem et Diabolum – Berlin, DE [info]
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