Diversum

Band	In the Woods...
Type	Album (Studio full-length)
Released	November 25, 2022
Labels	Soulseller Records
Format	CD, Digital, Vinyl, Cassette
Length	49:37
Ranked	#132 for 2022 , #6,826 all-time

Reviews : 1
Comments : 2

Total votes : 3
Rating : 85 / 100

Have : 0
Want : 0

Added by

Eagles

Diversum Information

Track listing (Songs)

	title		rating	votes	video
1.	The Coward's Way	6:12	85	1
2.	Moments	4:23	85	1
3.	We Sinful Converge	6:08	90	2
4.	The Malevolent God	7:28	80	1	Audio
5.	A Wonderful Crisis	7:35	85	1	Audio
6.	Humanity	5:21	85	1
7.	Master of None	5:47	85	1
8.	Your Dark	6:41	85	1

[ Rating detail ]

Line-up (members)

Bernt Fjellestad : Vocals
Kåre André Sletteberg : Guitars
Bernt Sørensen : Guitars
Nils Drivdal : Bass
Anders Kobro : Drums

Production staff / artist

Frédéric Gervais : Mixing, Mastering Engineer
Dr.Winter : Cover Artwork

Diversum Videos

The Malevolent God

A Wonderful Crisis

Diversum Videos (2)

Diversum Reviews

(1)

Reviewer :

prixmypouts 80/100

Date : Mar 17, 2025

The average age of all the cells in an adult human is somewhere between seven and ten years old. We constantly replace parts of ourselves, so that you are mostly a different person every decade or so. That means if you really, like, think about it, no band that lasts longer than ten years has any of its original lineup left. This is how I explain In the Woods… to myself. The outfit is in its fourth decade of shuffling through lineups and genres, with drummer Anders Kobro and the ellipsis in their name the only constants. They began as a black metal act, segued to a form of avant-garde progressive metal, and lately they specialize in doom- and psychedelia-inflected progressive rock. It’s a thrilling and occasionally confounding arc, and it’s fair to question whether all these sounds fit comfortably under the umbrella of one little band name. Still, In the Woods… has always been worth listening to, and here they are with Diversum, the third album of a comeback that launched in 2016. So who exactly is In the Woods… now?

Diversum features anthemic rock songs, composed in conventional verse-chorus-verse structures that are adorned with progressive and metal flourishes. Before he passed on to a realm of utter trvth, my colleague Mark Z saw parallels between the recent work of In the Woods… and Enslaved. That remains their best comp, but the specter of Roger Waters-era Pink Floyd also looms over Diversum. These are hummable, chorus-driven songs about bleak topics like the isolation that accompanies depression (“A Wonderful Crisis”) and praying for the release of death (“The Malevolent God”). The band’s spirit of adventure seems to have wandered off; there’s nothing avant-garde or even daring about Diversum. Still, the album is a capable and occasionally stirring effort that’s bolstered by an upgrade behind the mic in new singer Bernt Fjallestad. Diversum soars in spots and bores in others, finally landing toward the high end of the “middling-to-good” continuum that has defined the outfit’s post-comeback output.

James Fogerty, who sang on previous albums Pure and Cease the Day, quit the band just before In the Woods… recorded Diversum. Fjellestad was a late replacement, but he’s a good choice all the same–Fjallestad boasts superior vocal technique, even if he sometimes lags behind Fogerty in emotive power. Fjallestad works in three modes: a carefully enunciated baritone, a sandpaper-scuffed belt, and a harsh but always understandable rasping growl. Harsh vocals are all over this thing, co-existing with soaring cleans in songs like opener “The Coward’s Way” and “Moments.” But the real power of Diversum comes from the build-up to the choruses, and the release as Fjallestad’s voice and Kåre André Sietteberg’s guitars push the songs over the top. The platter is littered with moments like that, but the best of them come on lead single “A Wonderful Crisis” and “Your Dark.”

The flashes of prog and metal enliven the album, but Diversum, in spite of its title, could use more variety. An In the Woods… album used to promise surprising turns, like you might encounter on a hike through the forest that begins with no destination in mind. That sense of possibility is missing here, replaced by a formula that, while well-executed, still gets dull as the record wears on. Two of the weaker cuts (“Humanity” and “Master of None”) are stashed near the end. By the time you slog through that boggy patch, you’re ready for this walk to be over. Closer “Your Dark” does its best to redeem the home stretch with a striking balance of the gorgeous and the heavy, but there’s no disguising the second half’s drop in quality.

The three albums of the In The Woods… comeback, considered as a whole, leave an impression of a band that’s casting about for an exact identity. That’s a strange thing to say about an outfit that launched in the nineties, but there you go. It seems that the current members of In the Woods… are more certain that they want to keep the entity alive than they are certain of what it should be. But maybe I’m too spoiled by all the triumphant reunions of the past decade to appreciate a pretty-good-but-flawed one for what it’s worth. Diversum peaks with a few terrific songs, and the whole thing holds together well enough that I’ll return for more spins. I wanted more; the odds are you will, too. But strip away the expectations that come with the band’s history, and there’s plenty to like here. ... See More

Diversum Comments

(2)

LuckyStar 90/100

Feb 3, 2023

Music on "Diversum" is slow, melancholic, almost mysterious. Songs are much more epic, comprehensible & dramatic than on the previous albums. The guitar work is much more focused on some classic metal riffs. In all the songs, the emotional and melodic sequence is based not on the riffs changing, but on the change of vocal parts. Although there is only one vocalist we hear three voices: two of them are clean, and the third one is harsh, almost black metal-like.

2 likes

Megametal 85/100

Jan 8, 2023

novinka "Diversum" pokračuje v smere predošlého albumu, a to je kombinácia Melodického Doom/Prog. Metal -u s občasnými prvkami - čo sa týka spevu v Black -u a Atmosférickými plochami. Okrem blackového revu je hlavným (vedúcim) spevom nižšie položený melodický mužský spev

1 like

In the Woods... Discography

Album	Type	Release date	Rating	Votes	Reviews
Heart of the Ages	Album	1995	86.8	12	3
Omnio	Album	Oct 14, 1997	86.9	8	1
Strange in Stereo	Album	Apr 20, 1999	79	5	0
Live At the Caledonien Hall	Live	Aug 25, 2003	92	4	0
Pure	Album	Sep 16, 2016	92.5	4	0
Cease the Day	Album	Nov 23, 2018	85	1	1
▶ Diversum	Album	Nov 25, 2022	85	3	1
Otra	Album	Apr 11, 2025	-	0	0