Marienbad – Werk 1: Natchfall (2011)

Hailing from Germany’s Massacre records, today we have Marienbad and their debut album “Werk 1: Natchfall” released both in English and Germany languages. Being the good journalists we are, we never heard of this band before and gave it a spin before reading the promo notes and we came up to the unanimous decision this band sounded like a mixture of Eisregen and The Vision Bleak with a darker edge. To our surprise this band is formed by M. Roth and Yantit (of Eisregen) and features Allen B. Konstanz (of The Vision Bleak) on drums.

With a very dark and varied sound, Marienbad is one of the most entertaining and diverse bands we have heard in quite a while. They manage to combine dramatic vocals with shrieks, the way only M. Roth can do, with powerful guitar riffs, tight drumming and very interesting atmospheric elements. All of these ingredients create a very dark and thick atmosphere that will hypnotize you.

With the starting track “Come to Marienbad”, the band opens with a dark piano section that is nicely enveloped by powerful riffs and clean vocals. The whispers in this track give a very eerie Devil Doll-like feeling to the song. In “Roslins Curse” the band goes straight forward with catchy riffing, very melodic clean vocals and nice atmospheric elements. The very dramatic “7 in the Lake” features an even darker side than the first few songs and keeps the momentum building in this very exciting release.

“Night of Flames” is a very Eisregen-like song due to the aggressive vocals and catchy melody, something we have missed in Eisregen’s most recent releases. In our opinion, the best song in this release has to be the very dark and emotional “The Yellow Mansion of Suice”, this track will make your skin crawl.  To close the album we have “Under Dam Crest”, another very Esiregen-like track that nicely closes this very interesting release with a completely deranged sound.

“Werk 1:Nachtfall” has been mixed by Markus Stock, giving it that very dark and yet crystal clear sound that he manages to squeeze out of all the bands he mixes and produces. If you are looking for a very diverse release that features some familiar elements from bands like The Vision Bleak and Eisregen, you should definitely check this band out.

Release: May 27th, 2011

Country: Germany