The first thing I learnt about this, the fourth album by German black metallers Streams of Blood, was that all the hard copies of the CD had been stolen. I can relate entirely to the frustration of that after a similar experience in about 2005, when all the precious copies of Devilish Impressions’s debut album were waylaid, to be eventually located in a warehouse near Frankfurt and repatriated with some difficulty. So good luck to the band and the label in tracking down the copies, and good luck also to the thief who now has the opportunity to subject themselves to “Erløsung” and its “blastbeat attacks, biting riffs, icy leads and a gloomy mood marked by destruction”.
I can only conclude that “Erløsung”, which means Salvation, is an ironic title, as there doesn’t seem to be a shred of it. “Freitodmaschine” (Free Death Machine) is a dirty, relentless assault, marked by angry riffs and growls, and a furious wall of noise. Sparks fly. Somewhere in there is a melody to hang on to, but t’s hardly a crumb of comfort. It’s fitting that this band supported Marduk in 2018 as here is the same level of intensity and violence. It’s not all hammer and tongs, as here and there Streams of Blood are capable of impressive grey, lingering passages as on “Declaration”, but let’s face it, this is about warmongering and attrition. To prove the point, the tempo is increased at the end of “Declaration”. “Die Ablehnung (das Opfer)” (Rejection: the Victim) starts with a murderous riff and scream, continuing in a bath of rancid death. The tone is somewhere between Endstille and Dark Fortress. The atmosphere is of grisly horror. The skill is in those tempo changes, as the pace picks up from time to time and in the true style of black metal, is merciless and uncompromising. Evil descends upon evil. If the themes are anti-human and self-destructive, the music output matches them. “Nychts” (Nothing) is another miserable, attritional affair but had less impact than the others. “Day of Immortality, which follows it, had a different mood with its funereal, sword-hanging-in-the-air approach. The pace picks up, the instrumentals become more frantic and the gruff vocalist sounds more desperate. Those blastbeating drums pave the way for another nihilistic assault on “Pigture”. For the latter part, the song takes off into a wild and windy world with an exciting blast. Streams of Blood are very good at these transitions. The fire continues into “The Herd”, which breaks and plunges us into a noise-filled chasm before ending in a ball of flames.
Musically and structurally “Erløsung” is more subtle and sophisticated than it might first appear, considering its basis of destruction and icy grimness. It is a real breath of rancid air. Hopefully the missing CDs will be recovered but at least we can be reassured that there are other ways of acquiring the album and being exposed to its murderous and ominous atmospheres.
(7.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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