Niedergang

I found Die Saat originally through Fjoergyn, a band I managed to catch live when I saw Alcest perform in London. Fjoergyn were, of course, a supporting artist to both Alcest and The Vision Bleak, but put up a decent performance. I knew of them before the gig and had listened to a few songs, though not a full album all the way through. I was checking out their page when I noticed associated band Die Saat, a fellow German black/folk metal band. Sturm, the keyboardist and vocalist for Die Saat, also contributes on the Fjoergyn band on both keyboards and vocals again, but also on guitar. His performance live with Fjoergyn was a weird one. He didn’t really have much presence on stage and had a lot of weird facial expressions, but his voice gave the jazzy Fjoergyn a lot of character, so I was looking forward to hearing his contribution here, which, it’s fair to say, is a lot more standardised than for Fjoergyn, a really eclectic band who take influence from all over the shop.

Die Saat’s full-length debut, entitled ‘Niedergang’ is an unusual mixture of black-meets-folk and, for the most part, can be fairly uninspiring. The band is far too under-produced to use this type of stylistic approach for me. I’m afraid to say it because the music can conjure up some delicate and beautiful atmospherics, but is harmed by the buzzing, lo-fi qualities of the production. Address the production and we could have a winner on our hands. Well, of course there are some other issues to address besides the production, but the skill seems to be there and the musical arrangements are varied enough to support the talents of each individual with Sturm being the outstanding performer as his keyboard sections come out the most from underneath the dirty and grimy feel of the production, a constant hindrance throughout. ‘Askr’ is a good representation of what Die Saat’s early career was all about, though I’m not too familiar with how they eventually panned out, though I hear they eventually became exceptional.

The production inspired a static based feel on the guitar distortion which is quite annoying at times. It really begins to grate on the nerves, especially when the keyboards are trying to forge a gentler atmosphere through subtly symphonies. The keyboards aren’t without their problems though and, because the production is as it is, the keyboards can sound fairly out-of-place and tacky when providing the piano base of material. The cleaner side doesn’t come out in force often other than through the keyboards which attempt to sound epic. Cleaner vocals are applied to certain songs, though sparingly and they’re usually covered in the fuzzy distortion, giving them a less than inspiring feel, as shown on the song ‘Erstarren den Sonnenzyklus’, which has really poor percussion on it at times, too. The sound is very dirty and raw at times, but the keyboards and calmed sounding bass are always available and ready to alleviate that sound. They do try, but mostly in vain. The clean vocals are nowhere near as important to the album as they like to feel and the folksy side to the band gets lost in the side of the band which is dominate -- the grim, cold side.

The bass is, surprisingly, functional and the layering of the guitars teaches the bass how to move beneath the surface. One guitar is more subtle and clean, the other is dirty and providing the static sounding distortion, which is beginning to buzz like a hornet. The droning of the distortion is terrible and a constant annoyance, but there are some redeeming factors which make this album worth listening to at least once for the experience of how folk can be integrated into a rawer sounding black metal album. The production definitely cannot support the idea of the layering here as it fails to establish a connection between the elements. The clean parts stand out, but not always in a positive manner. The distortion, though I’m usually fond of droning distortion, is pathetically implemented into the atmosphere and the keyboards suffer greatly as a result because, if they’re not being washed over, they sound cheesy like 80’s video game music from Zelda, or some other such game about quests and elves. A debut with moment of potential, but ultimately, most of this potential hints at a bright future, not a bright present status.