Irrwisch

Ever surfing the information highway for new bands to report, I was fortunate to come across this s/t Dutch demo. The three members of Irrwisch are all formerly from another band (with a similar forest logo) known as Widergeist, which also released a demo last year, but appears now to be defunct. Irrwisch has the rare talent to concoct miserable elixirs of dense and atmospheric black metal of the 'depressive' vein. But rather than corner the band into such a cluster, they appear to have much more than this going for them.

Simple melodic guitars are used to create a fuzzy, crisp, ambience over the swerve of the bass and crash of the drums, evoking mesmerizing atmospheres of melancholic days apart from civilization. The five tunes ebb and flow like the waves on the demo's cover, while the vocals paint the tortured existence of a soul flayed bare. These are the type of vocals you hear a lot amongst the depressive black metal crowd, focusing more on despair than a snarling, venomous attack. But the very basic guitar riffs used here create an almost overflowing sense of pride and warmth, anything but depressing. The tracks interlock seamlessly, a single voyage in five segments. I found "Leer" and "Irrgang" to be slightly superior to the remainder of the demo.

Irrwisch has a lot of potential, and I'd recommend this sampling to both purists of the suicidal/ atmospheric black metal scene (Drudkh, etc) and well as any bleak soul seeking something obscure, beautiful and pagan. An excellent start and I'm eager to hear further demos or a full-length.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

The reviewer as a person finds him/herself occasionally confronted with music; let us call it 'art', whose concept gives rather the impression of being created with the mere purpose of getting some attention the creator would receive not otherwise. Even though rare in the actual occurrence, the impact is a graven one nonetheless and leaves the recipient in the state in which the sanity of the creator of the release might be called into question. As the rise of the internet and the spread of underground labels have rather increased the amount of releases that apply to this 'rule' and releases without the support of a professional label might be looked suspiciously at. They might even be avoided because the likeliness to find a gem in the ever-growing ocean of mediocrity has reached the point of being described as hopeless. Luckily, Irrwisch's first piece is such a precious stone.

Yes, it sparkles in a great variety of colours and facets. It shines dark in the light and bands will be jealous for it. Thoroughly enjoyable, fascinating at best and catchy as hell is this piece which has seen the light in 2008. How everything works together proves that it is sometimes better to play in a band than attempting to create/write/produce all as a one-man-army. More facets will find its way into the compositions and in case the musicians possess some skill in their profession, these will later be reflected in the actual outcome of the work that has been put into it.

«Irrwisch» (see: Irrlicht (German); will-o'-the-wisp, sometimes will-o'-wisp or ignis fatuus (English)) is a band from Holland and their music is that of atmospheric black metal with influences from the suicidal subgenre. Of the latter can be noted that these are limited to the vocals only and the general concept does not present characteristics of the aforementioned genre. Hence is there a neat mixture of elements in the music: desolate sounding screams wrapped in basses, a cello and a little bit of guitar. Yes, this is not a joke; by no means it is such. Of the predominant instrument of the metal scene only some scare (or even negligible) moments have found its way onto this album; but «Irrwisch» is by no means the first band to do so. «Vhernen» would be another example for a concept in which not only the guitars play a minor role, but also for their substitution with a cello. Disparities between these two 'groups', the Danish one has only one performer and the short-comings are obvious as usual, are, even though some resemblance in the approach and the instruments, graven; especially the amount of variation in the compositions is an aspect to pin-point to. It is still a good choice to cite «Vhernen» due to the approach the band took while composing respectively performing the music, as due to some facets that can also be found in the performance of «Irrwisch».

With the reduction of the guitars to a minor role, along with only some rare glimpses by the cello, it is up to the basses to fill the gap... to fill this enormously huge gap. Some might even go so far to call the metalness of the band into question, but «Irrwisch» are metal and it is not always necessary to consist of the general set of instruments when a band is labelled as 'metal'. Yet, this musicians from the Netherlands seems to have solved this problem somehow, somehow neat, because how else would it be possible to justify such a high rating? Well, on this demo there are different types of bass-guitars and they appear as such: distorted ones on the left/ right speaker and a normal bass in the background; they are distinguishable from each other and do not 'annihilate' each other respectively challenge for dominance. Being distorted their sound could be mistaken for that of a guitar and especially due to the dense wall of sound they create in the background which might further foster this impression.

Luckily the band has a drummer. Judging from the amount in which a drum-computer is used these days, there seems to a major shortage of this kind of musicians. Would such a 'tool' be used on this demo, most of the dynamic and the catchiness would have been lost and plainness take over what can be noted currently as a very good performance. Especially in respect to the often simple and monotonous drum pattern used in the programming and whose impact is generally nothing but to ruin an otherwise neat/good song or even album. «Rob», the drummer, varies the motives over the whole length of the demo to a great deal and basses and drums work together neatly. Further can be noted that the repetition of the motives is kept to a minimum.

What can be criticized then? Actually, this is a though question and rather in the region of the subjective and personal preferences it should be sorted under; discussion on this demo in various forums have proven this to be true. Some might find the vocals annoying, while others tend to dislike the way the basses create the 'dense wall of sound' in the background; i.e. their lack of power. In terms of the song-writing there is not much left to be desired, as the band offers songs with a variety of lengths and therefore also different approaches in the actual concept of the music. Yet, perhaps some more braveness in the arrangements of the songs respectively in using elements beside the metal ones, like on «Irrgang» for instance, would help to create more tension in the music, but maybe this should (must?) be classified as a personal preference rather than a valid point that should be taken into consideration.

Final bits and bytes
This release is of a sort that is hard to grow tired of. To finally reach a point in which someone is not able to deal with it any further, abandons it therefore and places it on the 'to listen to sometime in the future' shelf. To do this with the first release of «Irrwisch» would do the art an injustice, because what the band has achieved on this demo is really fascinating and also somehow unique; especially the interlude in the last track is excellent and of a sort that is rare; not only in the black metal scene. Sounds of waves clashing against the shores open and close the release and similar to the fresh air that is so often associated with this particular place near the sea, the description and measuring of the quality of this very demo seems to be filled with something of exactly the same kind. Unlike a lot of other bands, here it does not sound like copying what has been done before, but instead attempting to create something utterly different; a progression in a new direction. Further does the band avoid pointless passages of screaming and moaning or whatever ridiculous/pathetic/annoying approach might come to the mind of the vocalist while recording the music; or perhaps even in the process of recording it; see the first demo of Ritus from Germany for instance.

Instead the listener is able to enjoy very atmospheric music with some fascinating interludes now and then. Further is the production of a kind that has given this demo enough power to unfold its potential and the three musicians possess’ the skills to write catchy and interesting songs. I can only recommend this demo and from my point of view it is one of the finest releases that saw the light of day this year.