One of the skills of black metal is snatching order from the jaws of chaos and Folge Dem Wind manages to remain just inches from the dragon’s teeth. The music the band produces is more like some mesmerising ritual than heavy metal – precariously loose and abrasive but intoxicating at the same time. The first album was more recognisably black metal but the band seems to have been settling into their stride and pushing the boundaries as they have gone along. The follow-up, Inhale The Sacred Poison, was like the gathering of some unholy rabble but this time the rabble seems to have grown into more of a loosely formed war band: louder, more intense, more driven by some real, imagined purpose. This latest effort at first sounds even more chaotic like a band high on primal emotions and whatever plant extracts they’ve been necking in those forests of theirs.
First things first, it’s probably worth pointing out that this is not a German band. Despite the name (which means ‘Follow the Wind’). Folge Dem Wind hail from somewhere just south of Paris and the healthy French approach to black metal, which seems to rely a lot less on the rigors of tradition that bands from other countries further north, has stood them in good stead. While I could mention the likes of Helheim (both early and later releases) – one of the grand masters of pagan metal – as comparators, this is not really a pagan metal release in the same easily-identifiable sense. While there’s something undeniably heathen about the magnificent drums on To Summon Twilight (such as on Die Wahrheit Steht Im Blut), it is not an album that so willingly slots into the box. It has its moments of more familiar, sharp, black cohesion and the odd rousing pagan camp fire moments. But it otherwise seems to wander quite freely on its own frenetic path: rejecting any temptations towards easy melody in favour of captivating, driving rhythm.
There are still some sharp, black metal blasts but To Summon Twilight seems to inhabit a much less regimented category. At times using riffs that could almost be mistaken for snippets of indie rock, before heading into deeper, more mesmerising sounds bordering on the avant-garde. It sounds raw at first until you realise you can hear every snare drum resonating, every bass line and each note on the guitar in almost perfect clarity like the sharpness of some trip-inspired walk through a pristine wilderness. The screeched vocals may take a little getting used to and there are times when To Summon Twilight could almost be mistaken for hard work. But it’s all part of the attitude that almost invites you to dismiss them, just before they lock you into one of their unconventional but aggressive mood swings. The most accessible track is probably the slightly Wyrd-like To The Void, before disappearing off down its own frenetic, darkened paths (the first track and the aforementioned Die Wahrheit Steht Im Blut would also probably do the trick). But overall this is a release to get your teeth into and an excellent example of what happens when a decent band decides to try to push the boundaries of black metal a little and give us something fresh and from the heart.
(8.5/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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