Raging winds and ocean waves have always been the staple sound effects of the pagan black metal band. But it can all begin to sound a little bit cheesy after so many years filling in the gaps between tracks that would otherwise be filled with a nice dose of silence? I can’t shake the feeling it’s a way of doing some of the atmospheric work that the music alone fails to capture. These days the faint sniff of salt water breaking on the shore and I’m bracing for a 45 minute slog with a band that believes playing their instruments in a black metal style is the same as writing great music.
But when an album like Wetterkreuz hones into view like some unknown structure out of the lashing rain and swirling fog such accusations would seem a little crude. As you may have guessed, Eïs, formerly Geist but more on that later, are a pagan, perhaps more accurately described as ‘atmospheric’ black metal band with more to offer than a few trite ambient sounds. In fact, it’s been a long time since ice winds sounded so good. Add a steady German poetry recital, some quality, sprawling black metal and towering electronic soundsmanship and we have something that, as all of the best black metal does, offers more than the sum of its parts.
I’ve come across this band before under their previous identity Geist (‘spirit’ or ‘ghost’). But a lawsuit from a similarly named German rock band put paid to that and so they dropped the ‘G’ and the ‘T’. Such a cursory response – who says the Germans don’t have a sense of humour! Either way it was enough to force a hiatus followed by a re-release of two of their first three albums under their new name and a split in the band at the end of last year. But these significant changes have done nothing to curb the creativity or the bite of the slimmed down membership that was left.
Obvious comparisons are fellow countrymen like Farsot and other such similarly under-rated black metal bands. Eïs go for landscape tracks that stretch out to the horizon with some melodic folk overtones and a bent for ambient atmospherics. It all borders on post black metal but manages to maintain an intensity that some bands find difficult when every track is stretched over eight to eleven minutes.
It’s a frost-bitten, hypnotic sound and, dare I say, almost euphoric at times. The whole thing reaches that suddenly-takes-your-head-off peak on track four and the final track is the only let up. But there is no space in here for contemplation or warmth. This is a white knuckle ride from the comfort of your own stereo. Geist is dead. Long live Eïs.
(9/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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