This is the debut album from the Verona Italy based band. WOWS have created a small buzz in the last year with their Post Metal Sound and they are making a name for themselves more and more.

I was not a fan at all of the clean vocals on this album; I felt they were really weak next to the harsh vocals from the singer. If they had kept the harsher vocals, it would have made for a much better album according to me. Anyways, this is my own personal opinion on the album. You can see the influences of a lot of the Post-Metal Pioneers like ISIS and NEUROSIS in a number of their songs.

The first song off the album is ''Alexithymia''; it's an ambient instrumental song and is quite gloomy. It's a great way to start the album off and gives you the time to get really into the album itself.

The second song off the album is ''Chakpori''. This is a song that reminds me a lot of the later ISIS albums. Even the harsh vocals remind me of Aaron Turner, actually. This is a very slow song and it's deliberate. Most of the song is sung in clean vocals and that's a pretty big negative for me. Paolo Bertaiola sounds a little bit like a Gothic Metal singer and it does not fit at all with the rest of the song. This was quite disappointing because the intro of the song was really good and I highly enjoyed the rough vocals.

The third song is ''Nemesi''. It begins with a real drawn-out instrumental intro which is heavy but slow. This song reminded me a lot of what PELICAN has been doing for years. If there weren't any vocals, I could swear it was a PELICAN track from their last album. It has a very somber tone and the vocals are not present that much and gives place to the great instrumental music WOWS can display.

The fourth song is ''Alaska'' and sounds so much like TOOL. You know the band that releases an album every 7-8 years! Compared to the rest of the album, this song has the more energy. The song has a very complex structure and they change the time signatures throughout the song like TOOL used to do back in the day. This is my favorite track off the album.

The fifth song is ''Path of Decay'' and it's an instrumental track as well. This reminded me a lot of RUSSIAN CIRCLES but much slower than that band. It wasn't necessary to have another instrumental track on the album and doesn't bring much to the table other than an agreeable change of pace.

The sixth track is ''Riwka''. This song is different from all the rest and they shy away from the Post Metal ambiance to create a very ornate song. They use a number of different instruments on this one and it has a very Folk Metal feeling. At first listen, I thought it sounded a lot like the first album from ANCIENT VVISDOM. Slow but rhythmic with being bombarded from all sides by instruments of all sizes and shapes!

The seventh track is ''Hades''. This song is quite aggressive with its distorted guitar sounds. Unfortunately other than being a very aggressive and heart pounding song, the vocals leave much to be desired. He seems to be really nonchalant and seems to be moaning. I mean he does not seem to enjoy singing on this one and he goes through the motions.

The last track off the CD is ''Abraxas''. This is an epic 15 minute long song! This track leans towards Doom Metal than the previous Post Metal songs off of this release. It has a lot of instrumental parts and not that much vocals. Thankfully the singer does not use his clean voice on this one. This reminded me a lot of the early NEUROSIS stuff but with a touch of Doom Metal. It could have been a much shorter song but I felt they wanted to end with a bang. The song is perfect to end the album, it's long, it's slow and everyone in the band can show off their skills.

In all, the vocals aren't the best, especially the clean vocals but when the singer digs deep and unleashes the harder vocals, it gives a boost to many songs off of this album. An enjoyable release at best.<