Ach Germany! Bringing so much great bands and projects every day and week and month to our black hearts. Leipa is a one man band/project from Bavaria active since 2021 and this is the second full length opus. This one contains 7 songs with lyrics in German. Music of Leipa is melodic black metal, with lots of emotion and atmosphere reminding me why I love this music so much. Guitar melodies are melancholic, sad, even when aggressive blast beats prevail in song parts of almost every song on this opus. Vocals are screamed but not too extreme so you can understand if you happen to speak German as I do. Now, some would call this depressive black metal. Maybe it is, but only in lyrics which deal with personal thoughts, demons and really, why try different roads when all roads lead to nothing in the end. Besides aggression there are also some calmer more atmospheric parts with some spoken word and listening to this record I can not really help myself but if I must compare Leipa to some band that reminds me of it would be Nocte Obducta. This is melodic atmospheric black metal par excellence, so check this one out.
Niederwelt are an entity hailing from Saxony, Germany and this is their second full length opus. This one contains kind of intro plus six songs. The music is raw black metal but with lots of atmospheric parts, slower doomy rolling parts and tortured screams mixing with angry screaming, whispering, even coughing in awesome and desperate Cult Of The Rising Moon. This may be called depressive black metal, but it is in fact atmospheric black with doom elements. Lyrics are in English and deal with apocalypse, surviving after the destruction, personal fighting with inner demons through prism of entity who questions its own humanity. Songs are rather long but they do not get boring in any case. One of my personal favorite is aggressive and blasting From The Ashes, which reminded me a lot of old school nineties Norse black metal influences, especially old Mayhem, circa Deathcrush era. But, for me the most epic on this opus is Reincarnation, long epic song with ritualistic guitar melody, thundering drums, chanting monk like clean vocals and that old school production and vibe that many black metal bands lack these days. Repetition Of Sins slows down things a bit into more doomy regions but it is such a powerful guitar riff coupled with vocal growls. Great stuff. Not to discover just all, check this one out!
I always loved the concept of split releases since the early days of my punk hardcore upbringings along with metal, I always loved split demos, split lp-s and I actually released couple of split demos diy with bands that I was a part of back in the days. So, I was glad when this split release fell into my claws. Skognatt is a one man black metal entity from Germany and their side of this opus contains three songs. Skognatt plays black metal, but besides atmospheric black that is a foundation I can also hear post metal melancholy, even gothic influences in Volcano. The Swarm is more so to say classic black metal oriented song, fast and straightforward, but also has some atmospheric guitar only parts towards the end of the song. Tornado, third and final song finishes this side like it started, atmospheric and aggressive. Wehmut´s side of opus also contains three songs. Wehmut is hailing from Germany and plays more depressive side of black metal with lyrics in German language which I understand so Traum(Dream) is a song which is fast, almost ritualistic in its repetition and has such beautiful, dreamy, like title says main guitar melody. Wehmut´s songs are long and express all the anguish and pain, such bliss to listen to the material. Krank(Sick) is for me the best song on this opus, being melodic and having that doomy vibe, but also up tempo and having unmistakable black metal core, making my skin crawl with delight. Todeswunsch(Death Wish) ends this opus and it plays with the idea that dying is torture but maybe not something so bad and ugly, depending on the way you check out. Wehmut´s side of the opus is a bit better but that is only my taste.
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