Carnal Lust And Wolfen Hunger
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This is a split-CD featuring two very promising and very different Russian bands. The first 5 tracks are occupied by Der Gerwelt, just about the size of a MCD, though it doesn't carry a title and I don't think the material has been released before. The next 10 tracks are Nargathrond's debut album which has been released earlier by CDM Records on MC.
This is a symphonic Black Metal act featuring Ixxaander of Rossomahaar and Tales Of Darknord. However, this can't be compared to any of his other bands. They play more usual Black Metal, but with a very special feeling.
The guitars are grating, but melodic and create a nice fundament for the other elements. Sometimes more advanced playing can be heard, like solos, without ever really taking over. Some synths are used, though mostly on the intros where we can hear beautiful piano solos. The vocals, which are quite dominating in the soundpicture, are pretty traditional blackish screams. Sometimes they follow the melodies of the guitar or create their own rhythms to follow which can be pretty cool. An outstanding thing with Der Gerwelt worth mentioning is when the music suddenly breaks out into fast, melodic acoustic playing before it continues with the grating melodies. It doesn't last for long, but it varies the songs and sounds cool. I was going to list up my favourite tracks, but couldn't decide...
| Ixxaander Duke | Screams / all Guitars |
| Aarbreck | Acoustic and Rhythm Guitars |
Mr.Shirl - Bass, Drums & Programming
Baal - Keybaords & Piano
This is a very interesting project featuring Lazar and Herr Stalhammer of Rossomahaar. They play some kind of Ambient Black Metal or something.
The first thing that hit my mind when I started listening to Nargathrond was "symphonic Black Metal without guitars", however there's much more to Nargathrond than that. The first few minutes I missed guitars, but they usually just create a background-noise in the Symphonic Black Metal genre, so what's the point? The sound is crystal clear without them, and though it's not heavy it's a lot more mystic and beautiful. Nargathrond contains only synth, drums and vocals. The synth is very melodic and there's often melodies in several layers. The sound varies from piano to atmospheric, flowing notes and classical instruments. Lazar's vocals vary from the blackish growls we know from Rossomahaar to blurry chanting and whispering, while the drums are as varied as in any Metal band. Half of the tracks contain lyrics, the others are clean instrumentals, but all of them are great compositions...
| Lazar | all music, voices, synth & keyboards |
| Herr Stalhammer | all lyrics |
19/09-00