Verdunkeln - Einblick in den Qualenfall
If The Cure and The Sisters of Mercy got together and made blackened doom, they'd be Verdunkeln - the former for guitars, and the latter for atmosphere. Einblick in den Qualenfall (Ván, 2007) oozes '80s in its rubbery clean tones and reverbed, compressed drums. The guitar intro to "In die Irre" recalls the chewy outro to The Cure's "A Forest." Peter Hook also comes to mind.In die Irre (excerpt)Der Herrscher (excerpt)
This is a metal record, though. And yet when it shows claws, they're bitten to the quick. Big, hollow drums dominate the mix (an '80s trait); only "Der Herrscher" gets heavy with its metal. But when it does, boy, does it. This 17-minute monster lumbers into a jog, gains steam, then perspires spiky melodies cooled by wafts of keyboards. The black metal rasps are standard, but the male choral vocals aren't; the last track is basically a gothic chorale, oh-so-Teutonic. Blast my lack of German, as the lyrics are entirely in it, but evidently Verdunkeln means "to darken."
The German black metal elite, such as Endstille and The Ruins of Beverast, have been singing the praises of their colleague. Einblick is one of the more unique records I've heard in a while. Perhaps Ian Curtis is looking down from wherever he is, and flashing horns.
Einblick in den Qualenfall is available at The End.
Labels: black metal, clee, germany
4 Comments:
I actually sought this out after your brief description of it on the GENOCIDE disc review below and was completely floored. Although admittedly not being as well versed as most in this genre, this disc easily falls into my all time black metal top ten. There are just so many layers and interesting takes going on. To me the low end has a really crusty AMEBIX/MISERY vibe going on as well as the darker rock tones over the top. Killer find and I'm glad you put me on it as its just about all I've listened to in the last week.
Whoa, I think I might have this laying around in the stacks at my house, but I hadn't listened to it yet. Never would've expected it to be this curious. I'm very intrigued. I'll have to look around tonight and see if I do have it, and if I do... I'll have to wait a little while before I can write about it now, ha, ha, ha!
Right on, Johnny! I can kind of see the crusty angle, though, yeah, this record is very much its own beast with so many different influences.
I reviewed this one rather negatively for Prefixmag.com...tried to love it but failed. Felt the production obscured the great moments on the disc, and that some of the monotonous Teutonicisms of it just didn't translate at all. Maybe I should give it another try.
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