CD Review: Marienbad - Werk 1: Nachtfall

Artist: Marienbad
Title: Werk 1: Nachtfall
Genre: Doom / Epic Metal
Release Date: 27th May 2011
Label: Massacre Records

Album Review

The moment I first encountered MARIENBAD, the masterpiece of Alain Resnais ‘Last Year in Marienbad’ came to my mind. Little did I know... For time being keep in mind Brian Yuzna’s horror movie ‘Beneath Still Waters’. The CD is a concept album, released with either English lyrics and vocals, or German ones and a deluxe 2-CD pack with both of the versions. And though the music is identical in both of the CDs the influence of different languages is somehow significant as it gives two different approaches to the same story. What is obvious is that the English CD offers a more, how to put it, cheesy feeling, like the 70’s Italian horror movies version of the story whilst the German one has a more atmospheric and subtle approach. The story is about (and without wanting to spoil the surprise and the thrill) a personal quest near Marienbad and a curse that haunts the place. For that they took the ‘Beneath Still Waters’, which is about a village named Marienbad in Spain (!) and which due to a dam became a lake, kept something from the Lovecraftian atmosphere of the movie and relocated it in the Czech side of what was once called by Germans as Sudetenland, namely the town of Marianske Lazne.

Needless to say that they way they deliver the story is way better than the aforementioned movie. Yet, and it comes as a second layer, this CD in a way works as a metaphor for the long claims of Germany over Marienbad and west, southwest and north of Bohemia. As it seems the Potsdam Agreement actually hurt the pride of some Germans and not only the ones who were forced to migrate, supplanted by the Russians. Of course the Nazi past of these immigrants and their collaboration with the Genocide is conveniently forgotten now by some, always eager to find innocents from the side of the Nazi persecutors. I don’t it find weird that certain nationalistic and neo-fascistic circles nurse dreams of reclaiming back the area and the city based on its “Germanic” past. Therefore the horror though disguised as a fictional story is actually a political one, even more confirmed by their promo material that claims that Marienbad once belonged to German Sudetenland - only when Hitler usurped it due to Munich betrayal. Just imagine the vast immigrant community of Polish proclaiming Bath (and other areas) as theirs only because they’ve settled in England.

Apart from the political aspect of the story, MARIENBAD set very gothic and atmospheric scenery and as I’ve already said I think that the vocals of Michael Roth are on their best when he sings in German. The escalation of the story is superb as it builds from horror to horror and the music actually adds an enigmatic and eerie aspect to the songs. The band is self-described as Doom/ Epic Metal. Hardly so, especially when let’s say CANDLEMASS comes to mind. Yet it achieves to be both Doom and Gothic at the same time. The blending of THE VISION BLEAK and EISREGEN is rather unique; the result is a band which has slowed down its tempo in order to gain depths in the atmosphere. The influence of EISREGEN can be felt most noticeably in the ‘Night Of The Flames’ though the general feeling in terms of music brings to my mind the DEVIL DOLL with which, as it seems share certain elective affinities.

If you have to pick one CD I think that the German version is way better. If though you are more risky and curious go for the deluxe 2-CD pack. It surely deserves its money.


Tracklist

Line-up

Michael Roth – Vocals
Yantit – Guitar, keyboards
West – Bass
Allen B. Konstanz – Drums


Websites

For the time being, https://www.facebook.com/massacrerecordseurope


Cover Picture




Rating

Music: 9
Sound: 9
Total: 9 / 10