Winterblood – Herbstsehnsucht (2013)

Making its way from Germany, today we have Winterblood and their debut full-length “Herbstsehnsucht”. Mixing Black Metal with some Doom elements, this Post-BM release is one tough cookie to crack. At first some things seem a bit rough, but once you get the whole picture of the album it comes together nicely in a very unconventional way.

The album starts with the mysterious opener “Nur der Tod hat mir Erlösung gebracht”. In this track the band nicely builds up to some brutal sections with harsh screams. While the music is well-crafted, the drums are programmed and sound a bit fake in some points. We are usually very picky about this, but most of the time you can’t tell them apart. Taking the opposite approach, “Mit jedem Abschied wird Erinnerung geboren” starts very heavy and slowly mellows out as it concludes. The atmospheric sections have some Drone-like elements and really help setting up a dark and cavernous mood.

The band’s strengths lie on creating very melancholic sections, like some Depressive BM bands do. A fine example is the opening section of “Raserei des Meeres”. The clean vocals introduced throughout the song are quite chilling, giving that creepy vibe that bands like Poema Arcanus have. The BM riffing backdrop on this song is quite powerful and well-crafted into the overall vibe. The short and powerful “Dernière” is one of the best songs in this release thanks to the eerie clean vocals and harsh vocals combination alongside the straightforward riffing.

“My Eternal Grave” is by far the most direct and traditional BM track in this release, with some old-school Black/Death Metal hints. However, the ending is quite odd and surprising, so be sure you check it out. The most cohesive part of this release comes in the last two songs: “Herbstsehnsucht” and “Saturnnebel”. These two tracks really push the band’s sound into the Post-Black genre with excellent atmosphere and furious tempo changes. If the whole release would have been like these songs, we would have probably rated it close to perfection.

After an entertaining instrumental version of “Dernière”, the band puts this one to rest. In general, we feel that while much of the music is quite good, there are issues with how cohesive this release feels. The flow is broken up a few times and some of the music feels a bit dated when compared to more dynamic songs. We believe if the band gets a drummer and sets a particular course for their sound, their future releases will be amazing. However, this album in no means is band, and we would totally recommend it to people since it does have some very unique features to it.

Label: Le crepuscule du Soir

Release: May 2013

Genre: Post-Black Metal / Black Metal

Country: Germany