Walg – III

III time’s a charm

The Dutch melodic Black Metal assemble Walg is back with their third album, titled III. Let’s see what this record has to offer. The first 2 albums were very enjoyable, and as they say, third time’s a charm. The digital album contains 11 tracks. That includes an intro and an outro and a bonus track (which is only available on the digital version of the album). All the titles of the songs (and the lyrics) are in Dutch. At the end of the review, you will find a PDF file with all the lyrics in it for every song (in Dutch).

Walg - Band members

Track list:

  1. Wanneer We Toegeven… (intro)
  2. Daar Waar We Komen Om Te Sterven
  3. Zielenleed
  4. Geselberg
  5. Paradijs
  6. Harteloos
  7. Labyrint
  8. Beerput Der Onwetendheid
  9. Verlies & Verval
  10. … Dat We Monsters Zijn (outro)
  11. Mourning Palace (bonus, cover)

A disgusting atmosphere

The intro “Wanneer we toegeven” which translate to “when we submit” in English, starts off with some nice atmospheric sounds, and sets the mood for the rest of the album.

Cover for the track Daar waar we komen om te sterven.

After a scream of disgust (Walg translates to disgust). We start off with “Daar Waar We Komen Om Te Sterven” (translation: Where we come to die). The track starts with very enjoyable drums and the vocals are spot on. It sets a mood which I quite like. The lyrics of the track are about life and that humankind strives for a lot but in the end mostly always fails and well then we die.

The artwork which revealed when the band released the single (shown on the left) really suits the song and makes for a complete package.

“Zielenleed” (translation: suffering from the soul) starts off building up with some keyboard and guitar play and reminds me of Dimmu Borgir and Old Man’s Child. After the setup, the drums start off and the songs’ tempo goes up a few notches. The vocals are spot on regarding the title of the song. You can just feel the pain and agony.

I love history, so the next track is right up my alley, the song is titled Geselberg, which is a very, minimal hill (2,5 m high), which was used in the Middle Ages to burn witches, this happened between 1587 and 1597. The lyrics of the song are about those events and how easy it was to point a finger and call someone a witch.

Walg Geselberg

“Vlammen grijpen omzich heen
De geur van verbrand vlees misselijkmakend
Voel de pijn, inhaleer de vuurzee
Met het wijzen van een vinger vinden ze de dood.”

“Flames reach around
The smell of burnt flesh sickening
Feel the pain, inhale the blaze
With the pointing of a finger, they find death.”

Lyrics from the track Geselberg

This track is one of my favorites on the album. The lyrics are great (if you can understand Dutch) and the atmosphere of the song fits great with the theme of the song.

The album continues after that with the songs Paradijs (translation: Paradise) and Harteloos  (translation: Heartless). What I really like about the album so far is the way all the songs really incorporate the name of the band itself, which means disgust in English. The band itself says the following about that:

“Walg (disgust) is inspired by the stupidity and overall sickening of humankind.”

Quote from Walg

And the songs so far make that apparent, but after those songs comes another favorite of my with the title Labyrinth. The song starts with a nice atmospheric and the vocals are sharp. But the lyrics are what I like the most. They are about how we lose our innocence when we grow up, and we never get it back. We can’t do anything about it, but we can think back to those times.

Next song I want to say something about is Verlies en Verval (translation: Loss and decay). This song together with Geselberg are my favorite songs of the entire album. I just love the atmosphere of this song. The song itself is about loss, and the atmosphere just makes it a complete package. I won’t say too much about it, you just need to listen to it and judge the song on your own.

“Nooit meer in je ogen kijken
het venster van de ziel gesloten
voor de laatste keer
onder een deken van verlies”

“Never looking into your eyes again
the window of the soul closed
for the last time
under a blanket of loss”

Lyrics from the track Verlies en Verval

That leaves us with the last track, which is a bonus track most of the readers will be familiar with, its Mourning Palace by Dimmu Borgir. This track will only be available on the digital version of the album.

Conclusion

Overall, I really enjoyed the album, some songs resonate more with me than others, but that’s a part of listening to music. It’s impressive nonetheless that Walg produced 3 of these albums in a short amount of time and still make it so that the new album is better than the last one.

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Country: The Netherlands | Year: 2023 (released on 12th of January 2023) | Genre: Melodic Black Metal

Digital Album available here:
https://walg.bandcamp.com/album/iii

Mastered: https://audioarchitect.io