DUNWICH is a Post Metal band based out of Russia. With no information on their Facebook or Bandcamp pages, and no entry on The Metal Archives, we are going to have to let the music do all of the talking for us. "Tail-Tied Hearts" is the band's debut full-length, and contains eight tracks.

"Glow" leads off the album. Female vocals lead with doleful guitars. It's melancholy and somewhat depressing. Then, a heavy riff drops, and the melodies come out in full display. It ends with a twitchy key section and then the clean guitars return to close, seguing into "Through the Dense Woods." Clean female vocals are done with dissonance, turning to harsh vocals and a bit of a Black Metal sound. It's a very unique offering, ending on an eerie keyboard solo. "Suicide" is closer to six minutes in length. Opening with clean guitars and a sad tone, the harmonized clean vocals are really emotional. You feel like everyone in your life just left you to die alone. The song is aptly titled. It builds to harsh vocals and angry music. Those steady tones at the end are just crushing.

"Wooden Heart" opens with fat tones that fade in and out. The clean vocals are quite depressing, along with the music. Old-school keys augment the sound here. It's sort of a cross between OCEANS OF SLUMBER and BLACK SABBATH. "Mouth of Darkness" opens with an equal dose of organ and distortion. The main riff is a bit faster here. The vocals are dreamy and the song is almost jovial...in a despondent sort of way. But, it turns menacing pretty quickly with those organ notes flying in support, ending again, with that spacey swirl of keys. "Fall" opens with clean guitar notes and ethereal vocals. At first, it's just vocal and guitars. But soon enough, bass and drums ease into the picture. It has a dreamy quality overall. It builds to a crescendo and then dies.

"Sanctuary" opens with somber key notes, and then a slow burn from the riff. The vocals are soft and dreamy at first, and then rise up and swell, and it's back to the earlier sound. I really like the bass guitar notes here. They are downright bossy. Towards the end, a blood-curling scream and some lead guitar notes start to build, and then it dies to just clean guitars and piano notes, and a very depressing tone overall. "Sea" closes the album...and it's a long opus...at just over nine minutes. Slow guitar notes and bass lead the charge here. It begins to slowly swell, the levels off. It moves at a lumbering pace. The vocals are just so depressing it's hard to describe the feeling they leave you with. A darker riff builds, and they ride the depressing sound right through the end of the song.

In sum, I found "Tail-Tied Hearts" to be one of most unique and satisfying albums I have heard in a while. It's mostly soul-crushing music, but there are moments of unbridled anger here, as well, as hopelessness. They run you through most of the unhappy and mad emotions that a person can experience, and in the end, leave you with no pleasure, nothing to enjoy, and the loss of your sense of self. That is powerful to say about music, but that's how it made me feel.