The more things change, the more they stay the same. Such appears to be the dominant narrative for human life, and such is the case for US black metal stalwarts Woe on Legacies of Frailty, in both message and in execution. Returning to the bands roots has allowed Woe to push themselves into fresh creative territory while keeping the fire that fuels them blazing high.

Legacies of Frailty, their first full-length release in six years, not only sees the band return to scathing form, but sees the return of Woe as the solo project of founder Chris Grigg, as it was in the band’s earliest days. While former bandmates make appearances both on record and behind the scenes, Grigg flexed sole creative muscle when designing Legacies, resulting in a Woe album that feels familiar to the core spirit of the band but untethered from constraint. Darker and more intensely driven than Hope Attrition and the subsequent A Violent Dread EP, Legacies practically charges along, its six tracks defined by their furious energy. Yet this album also shows Woe at their most musically expansive with moments of atmospheric synth washes breaking up the aggression and lending a new density to the album’s sound.

Lyrically, Legacies expands upon Woe’s rumination with society-at-large’s downturn towards self-ruination. “The phenomena of people desperate to belong to something bigger than themselves is something Woe explored on the last album in “No Blood Has Honor” and it fascinates me,” says Grigg. “Every issue, every position, you’ll find people eager to weaponize [and] you’ll find people glad to be weaponized. These are key themes in Legacies of Frailty, a concept album about the way a society collapses as our modern intellect is overwhelmed by the primal call of tribalism and warfare.” In an age where enlightenment and cooperative power seems so close to our grasp, bad faith actors prey on whoever they can sway with promises of importance and identity, even to those peoples’ own self-sabotage. “Walking the worn path / Cast away the chains of enlightenment / The truth, for all to see / Onward, oblivion, the resting place of progress” is the disgusted refrain on “The Justice of Gnashing Teeth” and it doesn’t take much to understand why.

I wish an album this full of condemnation and vitriol didn’t continue to be relevant in our current day, but until such time I’m glad that the fury Woe display here is righteous. May it serve as a wake-up call to those who seek to inhibit the road to a better future for their own perceived personal gain.

— Vincent

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Legacies of Frailty will be available September 29th digitally, CD, LP, and cassette via Vendetta Records. For more information on Woe, visit woeunholy.com.