Zwischen den Welten...

This MCD is a big step forward for this band over Mit Raben und Wölfen. While i liked that album, it was lacking in a lot of ways, and overall did not have that black metal feel it should have had, in my opinion. This MCD however is everything this band should be. The guitar tone was nailed perfect on this one, the vocals have improved slightly (although i liked the vocals previously as well, his voice did get stronger it seems), and the overall production value of the album is just produced enough so that each instrument can be distinguished, but does not have that overproduced feel that a lot of black metal bands are headed towards these days.

The first track, Erkenntnis, reminds me a lot of the band Taake for some reason, perhaps it could be in the riffing. The rest of the album is similar to this song in feel and style but each song is very distinguishable from the rest.

The second track, Die Flöten des Pan features a bit of clean vocals, more so than previously heard from this band, however the clean vocals are not overused and are done well. The part that comes in at around 3:30 is perhaps one of my favorite parts of the entire MCD. While it is pretty simple, being only about 3 or 4 different power chords, gets the point across and sets mood quite well, especially with the lyrics (if you can understand german).

The third track is an Instrumental and is relatively short. It is a nice short break in the album, and there really is nothing more to say about it than that it is an interlude between the two halfs of the MCD.

The fourth track, Der Stille Schrei, starts out about as black metal sounding as you can get. It also features some deep, death metal like growling in it. Whoever is doing these vocals is pretty awesome, and I would love to see him sing in a death metal band as a bit of a side project. This is also the song where some blast beats begin to surface. The one thing I always liked about this band was the fact that they didnt overuse blast beats at all, and this just proves that point even further because the blasts do not last very long, they are really only there to accent what is already going on.

The final track, Im Schattenlicht, Zwischen den Welten, is a bit mellow, but it is a great song to end an album on, and if these guys played live i have no doubt it would have to be played during the end of their set somewhere. It is pretty much the summary of all the ideas this band has laid forth in the previous 4 tracks to close out the MCD nicely.

Is this redefining genres in anyway? absolutely not. However, this is one solid release from a band that is hardly recognized, and shows a very promising future for this act. Grab a copy of this, and keep your eyes on this band in the future