Die Asche eines Lebens

Wigrid- Die Asche Eins Lebens

I feel as though this album will become a classic in the BM scene, if it already hasn’t. Everything to do with the album is perfect. Production is perfectly acceptable, guitars are very audible and the programmed drums do not sound unrealistic. The vocals are perfect for this music. I imagine myself standing in a dark pine forest and having the trees play this album through their skin, the screams of despair and hatred reaching out of the ground, and leaving you hopeless and lifeless.

The first song, “Erwachen”, starts slow and builds up to an excellent DSBM riff and the song is just pure hatred. This song leads to the greatest DSBM song ever written “Treibend Im Menchenstrom.” This song is nothing but pure emotion and hatred for society and the human race. The main riff is just absolutely beautiful. The song eventually leads to a slow quieter part and then explodes into the most depressing, life draining chords of misanthropy. It leaves me with chills every time. The next song “Tagtraum” is a very repetitive song that traps you into a void and hypnotizes you into a trance. The last song is another good DSBM. The outro of this album is, let’s say, “Tomhet’s” little brother. It is the perfect outro lasts about 12 minutes and seems to be able to let you get ready for sleep and eternal resting. This song just makes me want to retreat back to the forests of the dark and sit there listen to this song, and album for that matter. The song brings a sort of peace through depression. Overall this entire album is, in my opinion, the greatest DSBM album that I have ever heard, and I just found out today that after 6 years Wigrid is finally releasing a new album soon. It’s going to be a long and difficult wait but well worth it. I leave you with this final note that I feel sums up this album: happiness through depression and misanthropy

Ulfhednir returns on his one man mission to conquer the Black Metal world. The second full-length album from the German band Wigrid entitled "Die Asche Eines Lebens" is a journey of the emotions. I was sceptical before the release of this album. I didn't believe Ulfhednir could top what he had previously done with "Hoffnungstod", but he has managed to equal his previous achievements, if not better them.

It's been well documented that Wigrid sound very familiar to Burzum. From the very start of this album you can hear the undoubted influences of both "Hvis Lysett Tar Oss" and "Filosofem". Somehow Ulfhednir manages to merge the two together to produce something quite simply astounding. Although Wigrid could pose as a tribute band to Burzum (That's how alike they sound), Wigrid have encountered a lot of success in doing so. Many bands try to compose music in a similar vain to that of Burzum, but usually just end up sounding generic and uninspiring. Wigrid does not fit into this category.

Musically this is simple, but effective. Ulfhednir portrays everything that Black Metal is meant to be about. It's cold, misanthropic and highly atmospheric. Ulfhednir has produced an album which in time, will becomes one of the true legends of the Depressive Black Metal genre. This is simply a beautiful and hypnotic journey through the mists of evil. From the very beginning you know what to expect as the rain drops trickle down from the black sky. A depressive atmosphere and repetitive riffs figure prominently throughout the album. They're very important when creating such music. The vocals are Burzum inspired and work well with the music. A drum machine is present and it is noticeable, but it doesn't deter the listener from basking in all the glory that is Wigrid. Despite having no problems with the drum machine, this is probably the only negative listeners will be able to find. It has a very bass-orientated sound and is very repetitive, but isn't the majority of Black Metal? Even though the music is simplistic, Ulfhednir shows his creativity skills and massive amounts of talent by creating beautiful melodies and enjoyable riffs. Lyrically, the album appears to be about the pointlessness of human life and how torturous it can be.

Highlight tracks include:

"Erwachen" and "Der Schritt In Die Tiefe". Obviously this album is highly recommended to Burzum, Abyssic Hate and Gontyna Kry fans alike.

Wigrid is the project of one Ulfhednir, who has managed to create two of the greatest black metal albums I have heard. "Die Asche Eines Lebens" is Wigrid's second album. Beginning with quiet rain fall and clean guitar, it suddenly breaks out into depressive guitar riffs which seem to create only atmospheric darkness. The feeling is truly tragic, a sensation of waking to find nothing in modern society worth living for. Which is in fact what the lyrics are about. After another quiet outro, the second song "Treibend Im Menschenstrom" starts, this song with a more driving, yet still tragic feeling. The interplay of guitar riffs becomes even more important on here then before. The song deals with feeling of being trapped in human society, desiring an escape, but being always trampelled down by the constant stream of humans. This is brilliant work, the music captures the feeling of the lyrics perfectly, just as it did with the first song.

The third song comes in with an intro similar to the beginning of "Dem Som Engang Var," by Burzum (the song not the album). Slow, with touches of keyboards rising above the depressing riffs. Then it starts off, seeming to create an atmosphere of total tragedy, reflected again in the beautiful and concise lyrics. It ends with an outro similar to the intro, and then the fourth song opens. "Der Schritt in die Tiefe" is most similar in sound to the first two songs, and seems to act as a similar motif repeating to create a sense of oneness and contiunity between all the tracks. The lyrics are about waking up to the pointlessness and strangeness of human life, the flowering of consiousness in a soicety of sheep. It ends with the words "ein Schritt, tiefes Fallen, Dunkelheit Bedeutungslos (a step, deep falling, darkness without significance)," after realizing that life is but a meaningless voyage. The outro acts to create a final space to realize the meaning of the music experienced. It is beautiful and as effective as "Tomhet."

Far from your standard suicidal black metal band, Wigrid has something meaningful and poetic to say about the way modern humans live. As such like Burzum, Wigrid manages to both transcend the darkness and torment, and also succumb to it. His work truly stands up with the greatest commentors of the modern condition, like Sarte, Mann and most of all Hermann Hesse, a author who is quoted in the booklet. Wigrid is intellegent dark and depressing black metal, and is terribly important for the development of the genre. It's too bad most won't even realize it.

Now, before I had purchased this cd I had some hesitation. I had heard good things about Wigrid, and Bad thing about Wigrid. But I did so anyway, Being a avid fan of depressive black metal, I was willing to give it a shot.
As soon as I put the cd into my stereo I had stayed quite and isolated myself. Before I knew it the cd was over and I felt so alone and total misanthropy. This album touches all of your basic emotions: Sadness, Depression, Tranquility, Anger and so on and so forth.

The album starts off with the song "Erwachen" which is probably one of the best tracks. It gets off with a slow acoustic guitar intro, you literally have to turn up the volume to hear everything until the actual music comes in. But once it does you have an automatic feeling of depression. The guitar is quite simple, but quite relaxing. It changes the mood throughout the song with moving you from depression, into tranquility. The vocals come in and gives you in automatic Burzum feeling with a different style of uniqueness. The drums are quite the simple black metal beat. Im not quite to sure if there is a bass in there, I didnt catch it. But even if there wasnt one present, Wigrid did a phenominal job of not needing it (you really dont).

The second track is "Treibend im Menschenstrom" which is byfar the best song on the album. This song totally fucks with you. It starts right into electric guitar in this one with giving you a more complicated yet repepitive style. The vocals come in and you can feel the despair that Wigrid has inside. It gets to about half the song and an extremely dramatic riff comes in giving you a faster style of Wigrid while still remaining depressive, then the song will go back into the slower version and finally climaxing back up at the end. You have to listen to this track at least twice before letting it skip to the next track.

The track "Tagtraum" is the third track which...isn't one of my favorites, but is still worth listening to. It starts off with an atmospheric electric guitar and some small keyboard notes. It takes longer to get into the main feeling of the song and the vocals and other instruments. But once it comes in you realize why the intro boosted over 2 and a half min long.

The track "Der Schritt in die Tiefe" is the forth track which is the only reason why I didnt give this album a full 100 percent, it basically sounds like the rest of the songs, but is still good.

The final track "Die Asche eines Lebens" is probably one of the best outro's I have ever heard. A keyboard is the entire song with an unbearable tune. The sound is amateurish and first listen, but once you keep listening to begin to actually hear and understand the true masterpiece this is. This song is about the boost that pushes your pysychological limits.