Steve Mills has decided to close the ultra-decennial history of his The Wounded Kings, giving fans one last glimpse of class, in the name of a doom that, while remaining in the grooves of tradition, has always escaped the banality and obvious solutions. Visions In Bone, as if to ideally close the circle, sees the return of the other founder, singer George Birch, who in the last two full lengths had been replaced by Sharie Neyland; just her evocative voice of a priestess had certainly made more peculiar the sound of the English band, which was so to insert in that genre with female voice that sees as maximum exponents Jex Thoth, Blood Ceremony and The Devil’s Blood, making it perhaps less attractive to fans of the genre in its more orthodox version. This last work clearly, with the contribution of a classic tone as that of Birch, normalizes the situation so to speak without the final outcome appears inferior to In The Chapel Of The Black Hand and Consolamentum, resuming and expanding the speech undertaken in the last decade with Embrace Of The Narrow House and The Shadow Over Atlantis. Visions In Bone is therefore the best of the possible songs of the swan, with an inspired Mills to give moments of great lyricism with his guitar, which finds its outlet in the final of almost all the five long songs. In particular, appear amazing the last five minutes of the opening track, Beast, a real manual of doom to be consulted as needed, along with the intense Vultures and the final Vanishing Sea, which just thanks to its magnificent pace leaves many regrets for the end of a long journey and studded with works of absolute quality. Frankly, I do not know the reasons that led Steve Mills to close the history of his creature, there is only to hope that, on the contrary, his career will continue, in any other form or configuration, because there is always a great need for musicians of similar thickness.

2016 – Candlelight Records