Artist: Eden Weint im Grab
Title: Geysterstunde I
Genre: Metal / Ambient
Release Date: 6th May 2011
Label: Danse Macabre
Album Review
EDEN WEINT IM GRAB, started by Alexander Paul Blake and taking shape already under a different name in 2000, has made quite some successes with the first two albums, presenting a very metal-inflicted style of music coupled with metaphorical, often mythological lyrics. The third alum ‘Der Herbst der Einsamen’ marked a temporary backslide from the established style in putting to music works of expressionistic Austrian poet Georg Trakl utilizing elements of ambient and radio plays amongst others. The new album ‘Geysterstunde I’ is only the first part of a conceptual cycle.
It’s the title track that is getting us into the album’s own little parallel world with a little medieval sounding, gloomy soundscapes until the rhythm kicks in and down-tuned guitars appear while Blake’s nightmarish vocal delivery gives you the creeps quite quickly, telling a tale of restless souls haunting the living at night and which are sent righteously back to their grave to sleep by their mother before dawn. ‘Moritat des Leierkastenmanns’ breaks with the presented style from before in taking us to a funfair with the appropriate sonic means! We’ll get to see an organ-grinder who’s playing until his bones fall apart, literally, and people just passing him by taking him and his art for granted which is quite common with today’s music as well. On another note, I bet employers would give their hands having employees with that kind of motivation. Just imagine the possibilities ;-) An eternal war is going on in ‘Armee der Wiedergänger’, the reasons long buried under layers of blood which is not so different from what happens in the real world nowadays. Killing for killing’s sake. Nothing good ever came of that and never will. The weeping violins of that track mourn for the countless victims. Also the track is never bursting but keeping a low-profile throughout.
A miller’s job is to manufacture the flour for bread from cereals, usually. Once in a while you encounter a creepy miller who’s creating flour out of skeletons which apparently tastes very well. The song’s like a creepy nursery rhyme. A soft rhythm’s pushing it forwards while as a backdrop strings and choirs add the atmospheric bitt to the narrator’s husky voice. Do you see the food industry in a different light now? Think about what the stuff you’re eating day by day is really made of? ‘Ein Requiem in Sepia’ paints a picture of a bleak and forlorn landscape lined with dead trees, Perhaps that is where all the lost souls are going; into an existence in a surreal half-light, a kind of dream world. You can imagine the song is equally oppressive but injected with aggression when the mournful vocals turn into tortured screams. ‘Der Galgenvogel’ is the first of two spoken-word performances embedded into a thick body of ambient sounds and various samples. In a way it’s making the words palpable; giving them a visual extension. You can almost see it before your mind’s eye. On the second one ‘Taphephobie’, dealing with the fear of being buried alive it’s even more pervasive since you can hear people desperately knocking at their coffins in hopes someone’s hearing them.
Something less creepy is preluding them with ‘Friedhof der Sterne’ (Cemetery of Stars) and a spirit endlessly yearning for what’s forever lost to him wishing he’d be among the stars sparkling for eternity. This is one of the calmest songs on the album and the distorted madness is only a visitor for a few seconds. Melodic vocals and arrangements dominate the track which has become a favourite of mine. The final offering ‘Gang durch ein modriges Beinhaus’ salutes the doom metal with viscously creeping drums and guitars which makes the vocal performance all the more intense.
‘Geysterstunde I’ is an album full of little stories that as abstract and surreal they may seem sometimes maintain a connection to the real world and are by no means all taken lightly, even though some of them make you grin with their inherent irony and sometimes you can’t even hold back a chuckle. Apart from the lyrical the open-minded listener is offered a clash of styles. It’s like the band took the best out of the previously released and mingled it with new elements. Now let's wiat and see when we'll see the second part coming up. I for one am looking forward to it already.
Tracklist
01. Geysterstunde - 5:34
02. Moritat des Leierkastenmanns - 4:04
03. Armee der Wiedergänger - 5:19
04. Die Knochenmühle - 2:02
05. Ein Requiem In Sepia - 4:20
06. Feuer Inferno (Vision Swedenborgs 1759) - 4:05
07. Nautilus - 5:01
08. Der Galgenvogel - 2:31
09. Gespenster-Revue im Theater Obszön - 3:33
10. Friedhof der Sterne - 4:26
11. Irrfahrt durchs Leichen-Labyrinth - 3:35
12. Taphephobie - 3:03
13. Tango Mortis (feat. Jan Lubitzki) - 4:11
14. Der Nachtalb - Eine finstere Heimsuchung - 4:06
15. Gang durch ein modriges Beinhaus - 6:58
Line-Up
Alexander Paul Blake - Vocals, Keyboards, Bass, Guitar, Songwriting
Michael Tamme – Guitar
Marco Eckstein – Guitar
Zeus X. Machina - Drums
Website
http://www.edenweintimgrab.de / http://www.facebook.com/edenweintimgrab
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 9
Extras: -
Total: 9 / 10
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