Emerging from the Belgian scene and tied to the Church of Ra collective, Wiegedood had made their name with a trilogy of records of a glacial, hypnotic black metal, all tremolos and interminable blast beats. There’s Always Blood at the End of the Road marks an inflection: the trio broaden their vocabulary here, integrating hardcore, industrial and sludge elements. The critics (an 83 average across eight reviews) receive this evolution with interest.
The record cultivates unpredictability. Black-metal flashes give way to brutal ruptures, almost metalcore passages, disquieting atmospheric stretches. Wiegedood break the linearity of their early albums to build a more jolting, more varied journey, where the listener never quite knows what awaits.
The critics hail this risk-taking, this will not to rest on a tried formula. The dry, abrasive production conveys the violence of a playing in which precision vies with savagery. The most intense moments reach a rare power, as if the band sought to translate a form of existential panic.
This new diversity nonetheless has a cost: the record loses a little of the hypnotic unity that made the strength of its predecessors. In wanting too much to vary, Wiegedood at times dilute the trance they mastered so well. The transition is not yet quite accomplished.
Verdict: 8/10. An ambitious transitional record, seeing an important band venture out of its comfort zone. Promising, imperfect, but ever gripping.
