Despite being about since 1997 Wintherr has kept his solo project Paysage D’Hiver purely an outlet for demo material until comparatively recently when he released debut studio album Im Wald in 2020. No doubt this has brought the Darkspace musician a bit more in the way of attention although he has a bit of a cult following from those who have collected and been on the projects conceptual journey of which this is apparently the 13th chapter. Those who have also know that he is not one to do things by halves and that his material is always of substance. This was certainly the case with the debut album which comprised of a monumental 2 hours-worth of material and was given out on a memory stick to attendees of a Facebook invite only event. Yep, that’s hardly the authentic way of acting for an underground black metal musician.
Here we have the follow up just a year later and it should be no surprise that Geister (Ghosts) is another, albeit slightly less foreboding listening experience, at 70-minutes in length. Plunging in whilst we were freezing in the midst of a plague-ridden winter, the debut made a solid impression. I’m not quite so sold on the timing of this one just as spring has sprung and we are coming out of hibernation and indeed quarantine. Still with this sort of music every day is cold and harsh and just in case you had forgotten that the sound of freezing wind is here between each and every track to guide you along the way on this journey. Wintherr sticks to a tried and tested route too with cold tremolo riffing and a tempo that goes from plod to mid pace accompanying you like injuries on a slalom course down a snowy ravine. The drums thump away and the vocals are high slung rasping, throat-shredding and hostile. With most the tracks between the 5-6 minute mark there’s time to immerse yourself in them and the repetitive riffing is mesmerising on this earthbound voyage and comparable to the artists more stellar furrow in Darkspace.
Having listened to this fully a few times now (and there are only so many hours in the day) the question here really is does the material evolve and is one song radically different from another and to be honest the answer seems to be no. Having said that the next question would be does the album need to be so long? Again, essentially this is a negative too although who are we to question the artists intent especially when he is offering the listener an abundance of material? For someone who constantly listens to music it’s probably a case of some editing not going amiss here. If you had been waiting solely for this album though and are willing to put all others down and concentrate on it alone for a good month or so it’s no doubt perfect. And there is perhaps the dilemma here. I like it a fair bit, but the lack of variation and length is a challenge. At least although containing a certain grit and rawness it is far from unlistenable and the production with the bass turned up a little makes it sound pretty damn formidable. I also feel that I am missing out a bit on the concept from both following the artist from the beginning and due to the fact that I have failed to get a suitable translation of the 11 one-word titles to the tracks here apart from a cursory few such as ‘angry,’ ‘heat’ and ironically ‘different.’ Still, it’s a good solid listen if you want a long album on to effectively “chill” with. You also know when you are near the end as the final track Geistchur finally does something a bit different and provides 10 minutes of frosty, mournful ambience as a contrast to all that has come before it.
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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