Album Review: YEW: IV

Band: YEW
Album: IV
Label: Independent
Release date: October 3rd, 2025
Country: USA
Format reviewed: High quality digital recording

Album Review: YEW: IV by Ioana

Having found myself in a serious musical slump in the past two weeks, I found myself surprised by how quickly YEW managed to catch my eye. I was skimming through Bandcamp one evening trying to keep up with what had been happening in the underground realms, when IV just.., grabbed my attention for the lack of a better word. And… not only was I greatly impressed by the music, but also profoundly intrigued because, by all accounts, YEW is a… ghost project. It has a sizeable and consistent discography, yet there is virtually no information on it, no presence on any platforms besides Bandcamp as far as I am aware, no affiliation to labels, nothing. Nevertheless, this specter of a project is without a doubt nothing to overlook. And IV is proof of that…. Goddamn did this album give me chills…

The first aspect I ought to talk about is the album artwork, since that was what drew me to it in the first place. The artwork showcases an abandoned carriage with a coffin falling out of it in the middle of a wasteland, with the sun ominously setting on the horizon, all rendered in pencil. The style of it is also greatly fitting for the tone of the album, since it is incredibly well composed but intentionally raw and chaotic in its execution, the textures being the result of the chaotic, almost frantic pencil strokes. It is, simply put, the kind of image you can’t get out of your head. And just like the album… its uncomfortable atmosphere is enough to get anticipations firing up.

Onto the music… where do I even start with the music…

Everything about IV feels… unnervingly intentional, to the point where there are certain moments when it can be described even as maniacal. This whole record is, for the lack of a better word, obsessive in composition, execution, and everything in-between. This statement may raise a couple of eyebrows since, at a first look, it has a raw production and everything that comes with that approach. Yet, it is by no accounts a “raw black metal” album, no. Because underneath that rawness lies an obsessive attention to detail. Nothing ever seems incoherent or out of place, even the most dissonant elements, and that is because everything seems to be perfectly placed and perfectly times, creating a delicate musical balance. For many of these tracks, if any of the layers of the music had been even a little off, the whole song would just… collapse onto itself. And yet, despite this, the album itself does not come off as fragile. In fact, the opposite is the case. Try listening to songs such as “A Séance of Violent Manifestations & Grim Revelations” without having your skin crawl. I’m telling you, one simply cannot achieve such a feat. Speaking of that song, I must mention that it features one of the eeriest “quiet parts” I ever heard. The second half of the song is comprised out of a repeating two chord pattern played note by note, accompanied by a slightly dissonant organ. Everything about feels… wrong. There’s not much else I can say, honestly. It just feels… wrong.

The songs are of greatly varying lengths ranging from two to seven minutes, all of them being equally well written, and that is by no means a small feat. They also appear to be arranged in an almost narrative manner, since the record has a well defined flow, one of the sources of its coherence. The sound itself is expansive, further driving home that “wasteland” atmosphere that defines IV, while also amplifying the ever present sensation of isolation induced unease. The vocals cut through like wind howls in winter, thus becoming the most striking aspect of the album upon a first listen.

As some of you may have noticed, I have had… some trouble in describing this record. The reason for that is simply the fact that even if there have been almost two full weeks since I first heard it, it still feels very fresh, and I can’t help but notice more and more things about it the more I listen to it. Nevertheless, it’s been a while since I’ve been this captivated by a project and album so, by all means I have no ills to speak of in regards to it. That being said, I highly encourage you to listen to it yourselves. By no means have I done it justice with my description. And no, I am not being soft on it just because it caught me off guard. 10/10

Band
Bandcamp

10/10  Immortal Classic
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