WILL ‘O’ WISP got founded back in 1992. After two demos they released their debut album Enchiridion in 2001. On their newest piece is to find for the first time a female singer who supplements the male vocals without standing in the foreground generally.
In a musical matter it is hard to peg WILL ’O’ WISP in one of the usual drawers. Basically I would label this music as Gothic Metal / Rock with a lot of influences. According to the band info, the band promises that we will find all kinds of influences from Death Metal up to Techno… Well, it’s not that bad though. Actually you will find a lot of progressive Death Metal combined with quieter passages and typical Gothic – like parts as well as a few avant-garde elements. Fortunately those off-key parts get inserted discreetly and do not sound schizophrenic like for example in Atrox. Another advantage is the fact, that these sounds not only gets created by the keyboards, no, the entire musical concept got harmonized on it. The guitar leads conform as well as singer does. By the way … after several spins the progressive guitar leads sound pretty like Opeth.
Sounds Unseen at the first time still flashy and – cursorily considered – callow and incoherent, so it finds its way after every further run into your aural channels and will stick there.
Preluded by a very atmospheric intro it starts out with Night Walking, which turns into a progressive Death Metal smasher with male spoken words and female background singing. But here it already gets clear, the voice if singer Micaela is nice but too pale and trivial. Also singer Ermanno can not convince. There is no expressiveness in his voice, although the way is pleasing. The second track Celestial Bride follows these roots. First on Nusku it gets more flashy and spacy. But on the other hand a really nice guitar solo attenuates this effect. Paath and Eyes are pure and short instrumentals where nothing dramatically happens. One track I would like to point out – Lost In The Sands. It is likewise progressive but with heavy and powerful guitars. It kind of blows you away. Also the male singing comes much better into its own.
The lyrics deals with the gods – or better goddess’ – of the Akkadian – Babylonian mythology and the Sumerian mythology as well with aspects of the sleep.

Upshot: Unseen needs time to get used to it, to develop itself. This album is definitely not for curious listeners who mean to judge about an album after only one run. This, on the first trip cumbersome, flashy and bumpy acting album turns into a coherent and comprehensible concept after several runs.
Surely Unseen is not perfect. So the keyboards on Highest Wind gets on my nerves powerfully.
Second flaw is the singing which is mostly too expressiveness and weak. Structures and concept could be more sophisticated and maybe the music would be more comprehensible ( not, that there is anything to say against a complicated album, but then it is hard to find the proper balance).
But though WILL ’O’ WISP have delivered an impressing album and we will see in what direction this band will develop in the future. Anyway, the guys started smart, because the album has a running time of hardly 40 minutes. It is not too long and because of the few avant-garde elements this album is not overloaded. Thumbs up!

Contact: Fabrizio Colussi or Beyond Productions