Das Märchen vom Schnee

Brocken Moon is a black metal band from the country of Germany. This album, "Das Märchen vom SchneeI," is a wonderful piece of atmospheric, depressing black metal. I have had this album in my collection for about a year now, but never really given it a listen, until about 6 months ago. I actually just bought it because I had some extra money after buying a different album I really wanted. But, I really do feel like an idiot. I waited for 6 months to listen to this masterpiece, yes, MASTERPIECE, of black metal. This really makes one feel like he/she is on a cold mountain, looking off into the distant grey sky. The cover very much suits the album's overall atmosphere. It's melancholic, yet soothing and absolutely beautiful. Being that depressive/suicidal black metal is one of my favourite types of BM, I got into this instantly. This is 50 minutes of wonderfulness, but I have one small issue with it which will be addressed later in the review.

The first track, entitled "I" (this is one of those albums which the tracks are named with Roman numerals. Yes, people, Taake is not the only band to do that...) is absolutely breathtaking. It stats with furious blast beats, and a fast yet melodic guitar riff. This track has some weird spoken section in it, which adds to the chilly atmosphere. This track is the shiner of the album, definitely a great way to open the album. Many bands tend not to open the album with the best track, but Brocken Moon does it on this one! The second track is an "outro" if you will, to the first one. It features a beautiful acoustic melody repeated through its 3 minutes, and some blast beats buried in the mix. I have never really heard blast beats with only acoustic guitars, except for rare occasions. Brocken Moon really knows how to do it, and it sounds great! And there is a weird vocal shriek at around 1:57 which just sends the coldest chills down my spine! The third track shall also be mentioned... I got a very interesting reaction from hearing this song. The ambient acoustic riff in the intro sounds EXACTLY like Les Légions Noires artist Aäkon Këëtrëh's first track on his dark ambient demo entitled "Dans La Forêt..." Like, mirrored... VERY identical. This riff is played on the electric guitars as well. I am a huge fan of that Aäkon Këëtrëh demo, so when I heard this, I flipped. Absolutely breathtaking. This track has some haunting clean chants, as well as some amazing DSBM vocals. Very haunting shit.

This album is basically a depressive/suicidal black metal release. But it does contain aggression. "VI" is basically a straight up raw, gut ripping black metal war track. What is really cool and appealing to me, is that right after that track, we get to one of the most depressing tracks on the album: "V." This track starts with a sad acoustic melody, with harsh, painful shrieking vocals. The synths are amazing here, and do very well for the ambiance. While this album is amazing, it does, however, have some issues that I feel should be addressed. The first issues deals with the final and sixth track, "VI." This track is beautiful, don't get me wrong.. But it is almost 21 minutes long. It tends to drag. Now, I know this is the case with most DSBM bands, but there is just not enough variation here. It features the exact same guitar melody repeated over its entire course, and the only changes are of the synth passages. I really would at least of liked to hear a change in guitar tone here and there... But hell, we do not get that here. That is really the only reason I do not give this album a 100.

The production on this album is fairly raw. It's black metal, afterall. But you can hear what is going on with every track, and dissect each track. The drums are clear, the guitar is fuzzy, but clear, and the bass is even somewhat audible. The synths are easily heard, but not overbearing and they leave plenty of room for the guitars. Now, this album's use of acoustic guitars is breathtaking. They do not take the lead for the most part, and are majestic sounding.

All in all, if you're a fan of bands such as: Wigrid, Strid, Xasthur, Nachtmystium, Dodsferd, Xasthur, Burzum, etc and want something else to listen to in the same vein, get this. It WILL NOT disappoint.

Here we have the brand new Brocken Moon album. For once, the tracks weren’t put on some demos before releasing the final product. It makes sense so far, as it is a concept album following a story that could at best be described as kitschy. There aren’t any titles defined. Just the story in the booklet and one has to read the lyrics while listening to the album, to find out, which part belongs to which song.

Opposed to the lyrics, the music is quite impressive. It’s far away from creating something new, but what they do is something, a lot of bands would wish they could. They use more or less simple Black Metal riffs and overlay them with still simple but beautiful melodies. When the noisy music stops, some acoustic guitars fill in the void in a very appealing way. It’s a perfect balance between the harsh and cold atmosphere and the melancholic way of folk music. Every once in a while Brocken Moon also make use of the synthesizer. But not in a Dimmu Borgir kind of way. They merely use it in the background to create a very intensive atmosphere.

In my opinion, Grim is one of the most interesting vocalists from Germany. He has a very high scream, sometimes resembling Varg Vikernes of Burzum fame. But it’s also very nice to hear him scream in a lower voice as well. It just ads some diversity, what’s rarely inappropriate. But the music never seems to be overloaded. The atmosphere created with such simplicity is very intriguing.

Only the last track is a little questionable. I was at first very excited when I saw, that there is going to be a song on the album with 20 minutes playing time, because I’m always interested, if a band manages to maintain a certain atmosphere over such a long period of time. As I first listened to it, I was a little disappointed. It’s more an ambient song that features the same chord played on the acoustic guitar the whole time. Occasionally they make use of the synthesizer some more to keep it interesting. But after listening to this album a couple of times convinced me, that it isn’t a bad song. It’s not meant to be seen as a song in a classical way, but more like the ambient middle part of Pink Floyds Opus “Echoes”. This song could be described as Brocken Moon's “Echoes”, not only because it makes almost half of the playing time, but because it is somewhat different from the rest of the album.

Production wise there isn’t much you can say. It’s neither polished nor shiny, but far from Darkthrone sound. It’s just a noisy production that can best be compared to Xasthur’s “To Violate The Oblivious”. But it fits the music perfectly.

All in all there is about half an hour of very good Black Metal on this release. So for that I’m willing to give 85%, because it’s a very atmospheric album that features great melodies. But I have to take some points, because even if I compare the last track to Pink Floyds “Echoes” it’s never going to be counted as a classic an second, it’s just too long. Just a very long track, that sounds exactly the same for 20 minutes with some synthesizers thrown in every now and then. At this point, the album would earn 77%, but the bad lyrics cost them another 2 points. So I’m giving the album an overall score of 75%.