Unsouling – Outward Streams of Devotional Woe
Release Date: 3rd October 2025
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Black Metal, Doom Metal, Death Metal.
FFO: Feral Angel, Sacramentum, Grave, Morgion, Thanatorian, False.
Review By: Malte Brigge
Unsouling is the solo project of A.S. (Andy Schoengrund) following the dissolution of Feral Light, a mostly two-man project between A.S. and drummer A.R. (Andrew Reesen). I remembered Unsouling‘s debut, 2024’s Vampiric Spiritual Drain, from its excellent cover, but couldn’t find any evidence I’d listened until locating “Floating Key” in my “Strange and Unique” playlist. It sounded largely like A.S.’s other project, Floating Black Prism, lashed onto Feral Light’s later progressive tendencies, mixing synthwave, darkwave, noise and horror-film-OST elements into a kind of experimental black metal. On Outward Streams of Devotional Woe, those post-y, boundary-pushing atmospheres have been replaced entirely with deep, doom-filled caves and bottomless crevasses.
Unsouling is clear about their ambition to merge the bendy, blackened riffblitz of Sacramentum, the don’t-look-back death metal of Grave, and the Gregorian, cavernous doom of Morgion into one sonic experience. If you asked those three bands to write songs together, Outward Streams of Devotional Woe is about what you’d expect it to sound like. Sudden shifts from sprinting black metal into funereal doom out of which rolls a swinging OSDM groove are features of the writing (Towering Black Wave shifts almost exactly on the minute, every minute). Interval-climbing licks bridging ideas flirt with dissonance but never fully commit. Instruments are layered evenly, guitar adding to guitar, while the thunderous bass rolls and chugs on the face of the deep. I’m guessing A.S. plays live drums, not only because the snare absolutely shatters with every strike, but they aren’t perfectly clicked, creating a lovely live feeling. A.S. is a good drummer but lacks the electrifying drive that A.R. added to Feral Light. The overall production feels like it was recorded in the bowels of a candle-lit cave and, to quote my 8-year-old, “this is kind of a satisfying sound.”
Outward Streams of Devotional Woe runs a brisk thirty-seven minutes, but has plenty of time to get there. Opener Immaterial Entrance builds from a captivating slow picking progression off a synthy horizon note into a steady, Morgion-esque vibe. Your Momentary Passing deploys a heartbreaking, mid-tempo stunner of a melody that suddenly drops like crashing boulders before descending into a doomy layby where you really hear how important that massive bass tone is to the overall thickness of this record’s sound. Themes of the ephemeral nature of existence are highlighted by the refusal to return to such aching moments, though a faint echo of them may be recalled in later modulations. Close listening catches fleeting tertiary instrumentation adding subtle atmosphere, such as the strange, occasional whistle in Your Momentary Passing or the diaphanous choral backing vocals at around 3:20 on closer Dissolved in Spiritus. The album ends with a thrilling rhythmic drive I wish lasted a little longer.
A.S. is mostly a one-note vocalist, which not only makes it difficult to distinguish Unsouling from some of his other projects, but can make it difficult to distinguish passages and entire songs (like Grief Reconfigured) from each other. The more musical or airy movements can’t support his aggressive delivery. It sometimes feels like sudden, blasty shifts—which often rely on very standard mechanics that slide in and out of the ear without leaving much of an impression—are introduced only to make room for a vocal attack. Occasional changes, such as a tangential spoken-word passage on Your Momentary Passing and the heavy whispered delivery early on To Come Unbound, highlight the effectiveness of variety even within the minimalist intent. I would go so far as to say To Come Unbound would benefit from a clean baritone to intertwine with the intriguing guitars. The vocals are so buried on Towering Black Wave as to be nearly inconsequential, but the long, open howling at the front of the mix on Dissolved in Spiritus works well because the stocky delivery is strong enough and interesting enough for A.S.’s style.
Unsouling has veered closer to latter-day Feral Light on Outward Streams of Devotional Woe than the atmospheric experimentation of the debut. The idea was to make a “more reigned in and pointed” album with less “meandering exploration”, and to this A.S. has succeeded, but at the expense of what makes Vampiric Spiritual Drain strange and unique. Outward Streams of Devotional Woe is good, though, combining icy passages with cavernous sprawls in a manner meaningful to the thematic development. It’s a wintry album with flickers of beauty and magnificence that’s not quite as interesting as the first album, but is different and intriguing enough to make me curious what A.S. is going to do next.
(3 / 5)
