M.W. Wild
The Third Decade

Mr Wild calls his debut album The Third Decade, which is a strange name for a debut album and the music is nowhere near as wild as the name of the musician suggests. He has released some albums with a band called The Cascades so it isn’t really his debut in that regard but it is his first solo album. So what can I say about it then? It has thirteen tracks of classically styled gothic rock music in the vein of classics like Sisters of Mercy and their peers.

It may not be the most ground breaking in terms of style with classic gothic rock music that has haunting vocals and all those things that are usually present in this kind of music. Though the sound is pretty nice and modern just to add a little more personal flair, and the vocals are really strong and haunting. The album could have more variation though and it could have been shorter as it feels a bit on the long side and the thirteen would have been better off as ten.

Dark All Over is probably my favourite track of the album; the opening title track is another track that I like – although I find a majority of the songs to be very good. But as I stated before, I find the album being too long and one of the tracks I can think of that they could get rid of is Marionettes as that is a rather dull track. But besides being on the long and perhaps slightly monotonous I see no major weaknesses in this album, it is one that will appeal to fans of the gothic rock style.

Thumbs up for Wild, perhaps with a slight reservation but if you are a fan of this kind of music you really should have a closer look at this album. It is an album that has some great parts and is overall very agreeable, but the lingering question I have in the end is why he calls his debut The Third Decade.

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