Trostlos: Gefangen in der Leere

I’m not really sure what to think of this demo. It’s the band’s debut, so I suppose they still have some ways to go honing their sound and style, but it definitely has its ups and downs. The emotional piano intro of Leblos sounds very promising. But suddenly I feel like turning the damn thing of when they start howling. I just can’t stand it; high-pitched annoying shrieks that I suppose is meant to sound desperate, but end up absolutely ridonculous instead.

Musically this is very well-written, and the melancholy they want to get across is pretty well-handed to you. Take for instance the ending track; "Ein letzter hauch von leben". A slow tempo where the bass drum (while still remaining quite slow) takes the lead, accompanied by repetitive cold riffing that sets the tone. While the riffing in itself would be enough to sound melancholic, the added atmosphere of the piano makes it very daunting. Fortunately here the vocals aren’t as overwhelmingly howled, and sounds restrained to a level where I can cope with it. But they do also spice the vocal part up; throwing in some more conventional black metal screams. Thus, this track remains the best one overall as the melancholy is very present.

I wouldn’t derogate the effectiveness of the remaining material, however. "…In der ensamkeit" is one and a half minute of beautiful piano play, with the added crackle of vinyl, giving it a haunting aura. Cool to add that to a CD release. The other two tracks are also of a high standard with good melodic guitar lines and great piano melodies. The eerie choir in "Leblos" works great together with the gnarly screams, but unfortunately they just don’t stop howling.

I suppose it’s the piano aspect of Idisenfluch that makes them stand out from the crowd of generic ‘depressive black metal’ bands. But I still can’t really get past the annoying effect the howling vocals bring to the table, as it definitely takes away from the overall power of the tunes. I mean; they have the riffing down, they have some cool ideas, decent production (and not horrific, as many acts of this style) and good vocals when he doesn’t sound like a tortured eunuch. It didn’t sound good when Vikernes did it, and it certainly doesn’t sound any better now. But sans eunuch vocals and with a little more power in the production they would top so many bands off, so I hope for that next time around.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net

I'd probably like Trostlos if it was a bit more daring. A lot of depressive black metal sounds like like sad rock music with screams nowadays, and this demo is pretty close to Lifelover in that regard. I guess you could blame 'Dance of December Souls'. That album took to writing really bleak, emotional songs in an almost pop-like manner, but it had an undoubtedly intense edge to it, like Katatonia were really, really serious about what they were writing about.

On Trostlos, Idisenfluch write some pretty nice songs, but I think that a lot of metalheads might pass it off as generic even though the songwriting is pretty good, and that's because it seems to lack that edge that a lot of great black metal has, like the band is afraid to really step outside of the simple formula and aim for something higher. They seem very capable of it, and at times they manage it. The album closer 'Ein Letzer Hauch Von Leben' is probably the most intense, where the emotional songwriting really grabs you the most, and the climax sections of opener 'Leblos' are pretty cool aswell.

I guess the main problem I have with this is that I've heard so many "suicidal" black metal bands in the past, and they're all communicating their depression in the same way, and they're all tuned in to the same emotional frequency, and I guess the more you hear the less convincing the next act will be. It goes along with the old saying that it's hard to screw up funeral doom, because it's easy to make it sound great but since everyone sounds great, no one really stands out and everything becomes generic. The same goes for depressive black metal. 'Trostlos' is cool when it's on, and then once it finishes it gets stored away mentally with hundreds of other depressive black metal albums that all sound the same and are all really great when they're on and are instantly forgotten when they're finished. It's not just Idisenfluch though, they're great songwriters, I can't deny that at all. It just feels like the bar needs to be raised with this style of music now as everything is of this high quality, and as a result nothing stands out as really great, and it's the same reason that I don't share the same enthusiasm that others have for bands like Ashes, sure it's really enjoyable to listen to but it's down to it being really easy to write cute emotional guitar lines that are nice when they're on then forgotten straight afterwards.

I guess I can end this review by saying that if you're really into that sort of emotional (I wouldn't say this really depresses me) black metal then Idisenfluch do a really great job, even though they take a somewhat cutesy, undaring route. The songs, will very pop/rock-like in their construction, are nicely written and do tend to really hit home, and of course the German accent really adds to that despaired feeling for whatever reason, especially when the vocals are screamed in that 'Varg minus the aggression' tone that this sort of band takes. But if like me, you feel as though when you've heard one suicidal black metal band, you've heard them all, this might only be worth buying if you find a cheap copy. It's cool and all, but it's really no different from every other band playing this style of music as it's just so easy to write. Idisenfluch might be marginally better songwriters than others, I don't know, I tend to feel biased towards whatever suicidal black metal band I'm listening to at the time. I'm rambling now, if you like the style, check it out. It's not like you can go wrong with Idisenfluch.