I vaguely remember when Woe was based in New Jersey (Philadelphia now) and at that time were only a one-man project fronted by current Krieg drummer, Xos (Chris Grigg). "A Spell for the Death of Man" was released in 2008 and the album was generating a lot of attention on the black metal circuit. Now, two years later the name is a full band with a new album out on Candlelight Records.

Opener ‘No Solitude’ is a great intro with tribal like drum beats over distorted guitars and grunt like vocals literally sucking me in and an ending leading into ‘ The Road From Recovery’, an almost punk-like black metal song for the first few minutes followed by more faster pace riffs and drums. The title track follows with added clean vocals in the middle, a good song indeed, but I found myself drifting off into space listening too till about the end where the presence of clean guitars and a shift in pace occurs. ‘A Treatise On Control’ is probably the darkest sounding song thanks to the almost depressive-like riffs over Xos’s piercing vocals. ‘Without Logic’ is the shortest arrangement, straight and to the point (not too much to say here) with ‘Full Circle’ the longest (clocking in at almost 13 minutes). Closing song ‘Hatred Is Our Heart’ lives by the title and is the most aggressive and hateful, truly one of the better ones for sure.

"Quietly, Undramatically" is a solid piece of art, the band is still young and will surely (hopefully) create more memorable albums for the feature. What I really enjoyed most about this album was the production, the drums sounded perfect (maybe a little bit too loud in the mix) but it’s not such a big deal, the guitars have a very gritty and crisp sound and the bass is even audible! Xos’s vocals were top notch as well. My only complaint was while the songwriting was good there seemed to be too many moments in the middle of several where the song seemed to drag on leaving me to wonder if something else would grab my attention, either a riff or change in beat.

Best tracks: ‘No Solitude’, ‘The Road From Recovery’, and ‘Hatred Is Our Heart’.