Seems to be no shortage of stuff being released from Switzerland right now, must be something in the snow and whilst I await the new Borgne to arrive Ungfell have proven a great distraction. They are part of the shadowy Helvetic Underground Committee and considering their mission statement is “dedicated to the advancement of grotesque, vile, depraved and putrid audio torment,” Ungfell may defy expectations as they are actually a somewhat jolly old affair. This is an Alpine trip to the mountains of the Tyrol, a place of magic, folklore and witchcraft and an area lovingly referred to by Donald Pleasence as The Swiss Transylvania in Dario Argento’s Creepers. Well, its these visions and locale in my mind when I have been listening to the group’s 3rd Full-Length album at any rate. Put simply it is a fusion of folk and black metal, brimming with traditional intrigue and mystery.
The other thing to note here is a cornucopia of pastoral sounds, the music is littered with the farmyard chorus of a plethora of beasts of burden. Horses, whinny and trot, chickens cluck, corvine cries are part of the cacophony as are the lowing of bovines and the tinkle of the cow bell giving everything a really cool atmosphere. If you drove around the countryside with the window open and this playing no doubt the scents of manure would add to this even more. Behind it all we are told and we have to rely on what has been translated for us is a horrific and gristly murder breaking up the tranquillity of village life. Track titles are translated to the likes of “How death and corruption fall upon the village” and one feels like they are really in a storybook as the music plays away and not one that is all cuckoo clocks and chocolate.
So, there’s a fair bit here before we even get to the music and after the aforementioned cockerel crows of the opener ‘Es grauet überm Dorf (Wie s niemert het chönne ahne)’ (and I’m dispensing with the unwieldy track titles after this) we get some shredding guitars with a cleave and vibe that would not be out of place from bands in the QCBM scene. Once we get the vocals along with this as things progress, well they are certainly rather Swisstrollish and bursting with energy. One feels like ale may have been partaken and the red-faced members of the community like nothing more than to burst into song and despite the grim undertones of the tale, the hills are certainly alive with the sound of…here.
Bustling away with bravado it’s all really foot-stomping and energetic and bolstered by a punchy production and mastering (Greg Chandler gets everywhere) making the swaggering all the more persuasive and leaving the listener wondering did someone just shove their arm up that cow’s arse? The duo behind it, Valant (drums) and Menetekel (everything else) seem like they have got a whole hamlet involved here, creatures too, and make a remarkable job of delivering what feels like a whole cast to the affair. They are not afraid to break up the surging powerful passages with some acoustic parts either giving it an even greater olde-worlde and medieval feel from the likes of accordion and classical guitar. Despite the versatile nature of the music which leaves you always finding something new such as the pluck of a jaw harp and a burst of operatic verse, Es Grauet is an easy album to get into and I found its immediacy part of its charm. One listen had me hooked and grinning away, something I really did not expect and subsequent plays have endeared me to this all the more. I’m not too sure if they got their murderer in the end and there’s probably a folk horror tale conspiracy lurking beneath all this but it has certainly been turned into an enjoyable album here. I’m off to hide though before I get roped in to help with the mucking out.
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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