Righty. A black metal concept album as a debut, and written and sung in an obscure local Bavarian dialect. Put together by Grant, former frontman for Dark Fortress. Yeah give that to me, I’ll have a go….
This tale of an old man withdrawing into the wilderness and thinking on his life as death approaches opens with the sounds of footsteps through deep snow, shrouding keyboards and strange, deep vocals, crows and curious interruptions. ‘Nachtkrapp’ enters in with a fine bm riff with a great loose sounding low end and keyboards highlighting melody like moonlight on frost. It’s a full force, bombastic sound; epic, deep and with deft tempo changes too. The vocals are really good, full of character and variation. The title track pulls you inside to a crackling fire and gentle notes and cello; a sudden solid knocking at the door and the creak of it opening. Whispered vocals. A distant church bell. The black metal avalanche quells it, pulling away the sounds of the present and into what sounds like a violent past.
This is melodic, atmospheric and symphonic and yet manages to slip away from being too grandiose. There is a strange intimacy here too which is excellent. The drum battery is kind of awesome; when it drives forward the production makes it simply power everything forward without overwhelming. The changes in tempos and the use of vocals keep the interest, keep you following.
‘Weizvada’ is a storm, a virulent piece of cinematic rage. ‘Nordvand’ has a similar anger but more windswept. You begin to believe that this old man’s life has not been one of peace, though without lyrics or translation who can tell….?
‘A Dag Im Hebst’ has a midpace roll to it but…is that a zither adding the eerie melody? It works beautifully offering a rich but sharp metallic sound, an echo that though sparse in its use stays in the mind.
Closing movement ‘Auf da Roas’ is the ghost of bands like Arcana and those old Cold Meat Industry days of delicate and beautiful medieval woven tones, the more mature dungeon synth, the feel of something passing on.
This is a very adept, very classy album that doesn’t really put much of a foot wrong. Whilst it isn’t ground breaking it is at least willing to offer some unusual but beautifully appropriate instrumentation and melds them with an epic sound and powerful delivery. I’d love to hear them delve more into that whilst retaining the power in this, but as a debut this deserves to be heard.
(7/10 Gizmo)
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