Artist: Cairiss
Title: Wilderness
Type: Album
Label: Digital / Self Released
The world of a tiny blogger (yep both the size of the blog and the size of the blogger…) can be odd and full of strange connections and synchronicity. This review request came from pretty much nowhere and, like the Acceptance review I did, it took me back a few years. I made the acquaintance of Cairiss some… six years ago? About that. A one day festival in Sheffield, a Warhorns one with an eclectic lineup which included Cairiss who stuck in my mind but slowly sank away as I heard nothing more from their camp.
And this turned up.
Firstly, just look at that beautiful cover by singer Freya Brown; you see that and it gives you a feeling as to what direction the music within might take. Oh there will be twists and turns, certainly, but as the first notes of opener ‘Nervosa’ hit, delicate acoustic strumming and a sweet but downbeat melody rises. Keyboards ripple, the drums pitter patters and the riff rises like the swell of a stream after a storm. It is beautiful. We are in the world of maybe post-black metal. Ameseours, Alcest with a little more density, blackgaze maybe if I even understand that phrase (which I probably dont). But it flows and ripples and just carries you with it. And the clean vocals when they come are so gentle, so emotional it is as though the world stops. The harsh ones are equally impressive and I recall them live too; the song howls out, the band so perfectly managing both the ethereal melody and the power of the drumming and the riffing.
I take a little breath. Its a lovely opening to any album.
‘The Guide’ follows. A gentle and languid journey, an easy flow until the storm hits. It has a wildness that follows the title I suppose, a howl like early Fellwarden, that same feel of the land. Like nature it would not have the beauty without the mix of the delicate and pretty and chaotic and wild and on their debut Cairiss balance this so well. Fluid guitar breaks, tempestuous and yet still holding the melody strong… wonderful.
‘Integrate’ is a shorter number, a slow and gentle number which strangely recalls in my mind older Amber Asylum with a strange sense of misty regret amidst the wistful melody and even a touch of the prog close to Lonely Robot. ‘Dissociate’ is eased into gently afterwards. It has real bite though when the harshness, the vocals come in. It lashes out around itself, maybe pushing the world away. ‘Retrace’ is perhaps all you can do after that, pick up the trail of what you have left behind. Reflection in the beautiful vocals, the sudden relaisation of the reality in the heavier, beating down riff and drums. Reconnection is not easy, maybe. There is a pain in this song for me, reliving violent memories as the song becomes a howl of atmospheric black metal. It settles briefly, a calm. Catharsis? Perhaps but perhaps that is the last moments of regret as it rises once more and howls into the elements… It’s a journey indeed.
‘Wildfire’ closes the album in absolutely magnificent form. Fiery indeed but bursting with yearning. The emotion swells the music outwards and you are simply swept up in it. It’s cinematic, a soaring song as though looking down upon the land. Moments of quiet, of bliss and contentment, passages of wild excitement that just fill you with life.
Oh it has taken so long for them to ge tto this debut but, damn, it is so worth the ride. Progressive, emotional and wild; Wilderness with its dual natures woven so closely together, so balanced is like being caught out in a storm. Exhilerting, intense and the quiet that surrounds it so beautful.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 