With Erfundene Welten we enter the dark atmospheres of depressive black metal. The artist who created this album is called Inexistenz, a one-man band from Slovenia. B. (so he lets himself be called) started this project in 2010 and was immediately very prolific: in the same year the debut album Lebensweg came out.
The new album Erfundene Welten (‘Fictional Worlds’) dates back to 2013; it is a six track album with a total playtime of 36:05 minutes. The production sounds a bit homemade but this is quite normal for the genre in question; apart from a few exceptions, depressive black metal is not certainly known for polished productions.
Erfundene Welten is a really well made album; the first two songs are the most beautiful part of the album, which reaches its climax in the second song, the title track “Erfundene Welten”: the initial melodic riff accompanied by a mid-tempo in double bass leads us straight into the atmosphere full of pathos of the song, which also contains an evocative, intense arpeggio. Erfundene Welten shows that depressive black metal is not only slow rhythms and sad melodies; songs like “Erkenntis” and “Zu misslingen bestimmt” also contain fast tempos and they are good songs. “Mitternachts Gedanken” is a short keyboard intemezzo between the two. The closer “Belanglos” is a song entirely in chords and melody in clean electric guitar with a meditative atmosphere. Remarkable is the vocal style of B.; he interprets his songs with a scream that is almost a lament of the soul, thus giving the songs a more intense and dramatic nuance.
The texts are in German (sometimes I have some doubt about the correctness of the use of the language) and are about introspective themes. B. explores the darkest areas of the I and sometimes his lyrics have an almost surreal atmosphere, for example the image of the empty shelves and the book with the white pages in “Zu misslingen bestimmt”: the shelves are now empty because all the books have been burned with the only exception of a book with white pages; this book is also empty, then, because it contains no words. The text, however, says “mein Feuer” (‘my fire’) thus expressing a nihilistic side. The texts generally describe the thoughts and feelings of B. about a sense of emptiness that seems ineluctable: “Alle Wege enden gleich Ohne Entrinnen / Alle Wege enden gleich Im dunklen kalten Nichts vergessen und zerfallen” (‘all the paths end equally without escape / all the paths end equally in the cold, dark Nothing, forgotten and in ruins’; quoted from “Erfundene Welten”).
Perhaps Erfundene Welten does not rise to the status of a masterpiece, but B. proves to have good ideas and his project Inexistenz can only grow. Erfundene Welten is definitely a good album and I would recommend it to those who love depressive black metal.
Notes:
Erfundene Welten was released on February 25, 2013 through Naturmacht production; the run was limited to 300 copies with a 8 page booklet.
The new album Erfundene Welten (‘Fictional Worlds’) dates back to 2013; it is a six track album with a total playtime of 36:05 minutes. The production sounds a bit homemade but this is quite normal for the genre in question; apart from a few exceptions, depressive black metal is not certainly known for polished productions.
Erfundene Welten is a really well made album; the first two songs are the most beautiful part of the album, which reaches its climax in the second song, the title track “Erfundene Welten”: the initial melodic riff accompanied by a mid-tempo in double bass leads us straight into the atmosphere full of pathos of the song, which also contains an evocative, intense arpeggio. Erfundene Welten shows that depressive black metal is not only slow rhythms and sad melodies; songs like “Erkenntis” and “Zu misslingen bestimmt” also contain fast tempos and they are good songs. “Mitternachts Gedanken” is a short keyboard intemezzo between the two. The closer “Belanglos” is a song entirely in chords and melody in clean electric guitar with a meditative atmosphere. Remarkable is the vocal style of B.; he interprets his songs with a scream that is almost a lament of the soul, thus giving the songs a more intense and dramatic nuance.
The texts are in German (sometimes I have some doubt about the correctness of the use of the language) and are about introspective themes. B. explores the darkest areas of the I and sometimes his lyrics have an almost surreal atmosphere, for example the image of the empty shelves and the book with the white pages in “Zu misslingen bestimmt”: the shelves are now empty because all the books have been burned with the only exception of a book with white pages; this book is also empty, then, because it contains no words. The text, however, says “mein Feuer” (‘my fire’) thus expressing a nihilistic side. The texts generally describe the thoughts and feelings of B. about a sense of emptiness that seems ineluctable: “Alle Wege enden gleich Ohne Entrinnen / Alle Wege enden gleich Im dunklen kalten Nichts vergessen und zerfallen” (‘all the paths end equally without escape / all the paths end equally in the cold, dark Nothing, forgotten and in ruins’; quoted from “Erfundene Welten”).
Perhaps Erfundene Welten does not rise to the status of a masterpiece, but B. proves to have good ideas and his project Inexistenz can only grow. Erfundene Welten is definitely a good album and I would recommend it to those who love depressive black metal.
Notes:
Erfundene Welten was released on February 25, 2013 through Naturmacht production; the run was limited to 300 copies with a 8 page booklet.
| Tracklist: 1. Verloren in der Neer 2. Erfundene Welten 3. Erkenntnis 4. Mitternachts Gedanken 5. Zu misslingen bestimmt 6. Belanglos | 06:48 09:06 05:28 01:17 07:25 06:01 |
Personnel:
B. - All Instruments, Vocals
B. - All Instruments, Vocals
This is a guest review for Support Black Metal (www.supportblackmetal.com)
Text by Herjann
herjann@unholyblackmetal.com
Text by Herjann
herjann@unholyblackmetal.com