Morgen gibts wieder mal #blackmetal auf die Ohren. #ellende #firtan und #karg in #cham

Auf das Konzert freu ich mich schon seit Monaten

Enevelde – Pandemonium Review

By Dear Hollow

There’s something to be said for simplicity in black metal. You don’t need an onslaught of atmospherics and technical skill to make it work – and in most cases, it’s discouraged. Sometimes you just need an effective chord progression, the right distortion, basically any vocal style that you can put through a reverb filter, and drums that hold a beat. Norway’s Enevelde knows this. Honing a distinctly cavernous approach to the Nidrosian black metal scene, the one-man act may not blow you away with its riffage, ferocity, or darkness, but third full-length Pandemonium aims for its most cohesive and sinister album yet.1

Enevelde is a project of B. Kråbøl, best known as vocalist of Misotheist and constituent of the second-wave Addams Family band Kråbøl, and at one time serving as drummer of the melodeath act Hypermass. While his projects are largely known for their intensity, Misotheist bringing the terror back to black metal and Kråbøl enacting traditional second-wave frigidity, Enevelde has always dealt in a more subtle and more evocative breed. Drums verge on DSBM in their restraint, rarely exploding into blastbeats, and guitars rely on droning tremolo picking rather than the sharp and vicious tinnitus with which we are accustomed. Vocals are guttural roars rather than sinister shrieks, lending a cavernous quality that adds depth and weight across the board. Following up 2020’s densely atmospheric self-titled debut and 2023’s more cruel and intense En Gildere Død, Pandemonium’s aim is subtlety, a creeping quality that suggests chaos rather than weaponizing it.

Subtlety is the emphasis for Enevelde, crafting subtly atmospheric tracks that rely on chord progressions, . Reminiscent of acts like Harakiri for the Sky or Gaerea, Kråbøl paints an unmistakably evocative picture with diminished chord progressions enriched by reverb-y roars and subtle synth flourishes (“Nigromantia,” “Helvete Reiser Seg”), haunted leads guiding grave, intensely dark, and nearly doomy weight (title track, “Eksilfyrste”), and fury and reaching the surface with tasteful blastbeats and dense bass (“Offer,” “Rasende Flammer”). The guitar tone throughout blends second-wave’s more barbed maceration (the raw misdirect opener “Gapende Grav) and a more modern doomish density (“Rasende Flammer”). Utilizing a style that kicks the gut-punch intensity down a few notches in favor of that creeping feeling, it’s a dreary piece of work in the most pleasant way.

While the best of black metal’s upper echelon features a smart blend of highlights and mood, Enevelde is very comfortable in its emphasis of the latter. Granted, you won’t come upon a black metal band that dwells in more cavernous tones often, but that’s about all that Enevelde does. It’s spooky blackened music with a somewhat unique vocal attack,2 a style that will please fans of the style, but there’s little else to be found aboard Pandemonium. Its slower dirge-like pacing is more akin to DSBM in the emotional gravitas attached to each plod, but if you’re not in the mood to be taken into the place that Kråbøl’s riffs and roars create, there’s nothing hooking you either. While effective, Enevelde is remarkably straightforward and one-note, its layers and richness devoted to the feeling in every movement. In short, there are no hooks aboard Pandemonium – just mood and reverie.

Enevelde has a good thing going, but its audience remains starkly limited. It will not change your mind on black metal, but its humble and straightforward execution, an atmosphere without the need for over-the-top theatrics, is a strong asset. It rarely rises above haunting and creepy, but it recognizes that it doesn’t need to. Pandemonium is far less an all-out chaos attack, and more demons are looming in the wings, utilizing punishment and insanity only when necessary. Enevelde offers a neat little black metal album – nothing more, nothing less.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 10 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Terratur Possessions
Website: 2 kvlt 4 u
Releases Worldwide: April 9th, 2025

#2025 #30 #Apr25 #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BlackMetal #Enevelde #Firtan #Gaerea #HarakiriForTheSky #Hypermass #Kråbøl #Misotheist #NorwegianMetal #pandemonium #Review #Reviews #TerraturPossessions

New Artist announced for Summer Breeze Open Air 2025: 🔥 Firtan 🔥

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Firtan – Ethos Review

By Dear Hollow

Some revered Firtan’s Okeanos as the new age of black metal, but many of us were more skeptical. Some pointed to the pagan texture translated through a modern lens, while others, like the gone-but-unforgotten Akerblogger, critiqued the overload of ideas with little substance to chew on. I found that 2022’s Marter was an easy 4.0 on first listens, but its novelty wore off by the time AOTY’s rolled around—a punishing and bulletproof black metal album, but ultimately too safely constructed by the time its lengthy hour concluded for the longevity I so wished it had. Two years later we greet the epic Ethos.

Ethos is another honing of Firtan’s trademarks. The pagan black metal influence is still intact with bouncy 6/8 rhythms. At the same time, blazing guitars offer chugging and tremolo picking aplenty, with wild drumming to boot and Phillip Thienger’s manic shrieks and wails, overcast by Klara Bachmair’s haunting violin. Violin stands out as a more prominent asset, in fact, offering Ethos a more atmospheric feel than in previous incarnations, resulting in the most epic and memorable album of the act’s career. However, it remains a mixed bag of quality, with some songs SOTY-caliber in epic atmospheres and crushing performances and others coming up short in monotonous fallout. Thus, Firtan’s shot at greatness falls just short.

It’s hard to deny Firtan’s effectiveness when a sweet balance of layered execution finds alignment. Ethos kicks off with one of the strongest tracks – perhaps in their career. “Hrenga” is a haunting seven-and-a-half minute opus magnum, balancing mammoth chugging guitars with downright infectious violin overtures, interspersed by vicious and climactic tremolo passages. This spirit is carried throughout the album’s fifty-one-minute runtime, with tracks like “Zores,” “Moloch,” and “Komm herbei, schwarze Nacht” hitting the sweet spot of chuggy heft, razor-sharp blackened bale, and violin’s ghostly tones to an epic and driving degree. The more subdued tracks find Bachmair’s violin taking more center stage, with “Arkanum” and “Ruakh” providing a lurking horror beneath the slower tempos and overlaying strings. The piano-led instrumental conclusion “Wenn sich mir einst alle Ringe schließen” does a good job capping off a solid album with a worthy melody and gentle movements into choirs and strings. Violin acts as a ghostly tendril, avoiding the decadent bombast of the “symphonic black metal” label, adding to its enigma. As usual, Thienger’s performance is a barnstormer, the expected blackened shrieks maintaining an animalistic edge that descends into wails and growls as he guides the proceedings with nearly sermonic charisma. Likewise, drummer David Kempf seamlessly morphs from funereal plods to blastbeats to morbid marches, the snare feeling appropriately thunderous, always audible and supportive through Firtan’s busy palette.

While Firtan does a good job weaponizing tempo and rhythm for their epic aims, Ethos’ problem tracks have issues with overly enthusiastic usage of second-wave pvrity. “Wermut hoch am Firmament” and “Contra Vermes” adhere closer to the Darkthrone ’n Mayhem template in blastbeat- and tremolo-heavy passages that feel remarkably empty in comparison to the surrounding tracks, melodic motifs quickly losing their impact. The second-wave loyalty is admirable, but it can damage the tracks in relentless monotony when overused. Meanwhile, some inconsistencies appear: “Arkanum” features a misdirect of an intro that leads you to believe it will be a monster track when it just simmers down instead; “Zores” and “Ruakh” eventually find their footing amid the unhinged blackened attack, although listens are laborious up to their introduction.

Firtan strives for excellence, and Ethos is damn close. While “Hrenga,” “Moloch,” and “Komm herbei…” are some of the best tracks of the quintet’s discography, others fall short of the standard through its enthusiastic and unhinged second-wave tremolo-and-blastbeats formula. Ethos is carefully constructed, just on this side of too long, has moments of utter brilliance, and is consistently enjoyable and powerfully evocative of its warfaring artwork. It feels like swords pointed at our throats, dangerous and galloping across a battlefield in ensured victory, and I am so here for it.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: AOP Records
Websites: firtan.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/firtanofficial
Releases Worldwide: September 13th, 2024

#2024 #35 #AOPRecords #BlackMetal #Darkthrone #Ethos #Firtan #GermanMetal #Mayhem #MelodicBlackMetal #Review #Reviews #Sep24