Wilderness of Mirrors is the solo project of Andie Gill, an English musician of whom I have had the pleasure of speaking in recent times also for his work in the excellent Vermian. Extinction Level Event is the second full length in a journey that began in 2021 with two Ep’s, in addition to the previous From Across the Sun’s Glowing Sphere, Slowly, the Moon Swims Away, with which Gill continues to offer a post metal doom instrumental of great quality in which the sounds offered are closely related to the conceptual themes described in the albums. In fact, if all the previous works possessed more personal and in some ways intimate connotations, with Extinction Level Event the eruption of one of those supervolcanoes scattered in various parts of the planet is foreshadowed and that, although they have been dormant for hundreds of thousands of years, with the resumption of activity they would be able to wipe out most of the life on the planet. Specifically, Gill imagines that the reawakening would occur in the Yellowstone area, where one of these enormous caldera is located, but it should be remembered that another of similar characteristics exists here in Italy in Campi Flegrei, close to a densely populated area such as the Neapolitan hinterland. The sound proposed in the album follows the various phases of the event: the sense of waiting and suspension typical of the previous moments, the actual explosion and the annihilation of all life until the final shy return of the first animals, prodromes of the restart of the cycle of existence on the planet. Thus we move from soft tracks with ambient connotations and ample melodic openings to more menacing passages in which sludge outlines the pyroclastic phases of the eruption. Rarely does an instrumental album succeed in describing the contents of a concept so well without the aid of words, and this is also where the skill of this British musician lies, deserving of much more attention than that reserved for him so far by the most attentive fans. In Gill’s work is perceivable a talent that the spontaneity of his approach ends up exalting rather than limiting; it would not be a bad thing for those who appreciate instrumental metal to turn their attention to names likes Wilderness of Mirrors rather than to the sugary and artificial expressions of certain bands that, in this particular sector, continue to gain acclaim despite their total lack of artistic and conceptual depth.
2022 – Missischimi Music Ltd
Mournful Sounds 
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