Der Weg Einer Freiheit awakes.
Officially created in 2009 by Nikita Kamprad (vocals/guitar/bass, Illusion of Strength, ex-Fuck Your Shadow from Behind, session for Los Males del Mundo), the band is now completed by Tobias Schuler (drums, Arthedain, Fuck You and Die), Nico Ziska (bass, Bait) and Nicolas Rausch (guitar, The August) for the release of Noktvrn, their fifth album.
The album slowly begins with Finisterre II, an introduction that creates an echo with the band’s previous album. The haunting melody immediately mesmerizes before leaving us with Monument, an as majestic and dark as raw and ethereal composition. Dissonance meets intensity and ice-cold howlings, whether it is on unleashed blast or over a more weighing part, creating an apocalyptic ambience that continues on Am Rande der Dunkelheit, a dark and worrying composition. Blackness explosion immediately makes us suffocate, creating a fog of sound terror, hatred and visceral sonorities which highlight mad melodies and above all this contrast between violence and softness that rages until the end of the song, before Immortal comes next. Accompanied by Dávid Makó (The Devil’s Trade, Stereochrist), the band offers a duality between the guest’s mystical clean vocals and its own universe, creating a dissonant, intense and surprising divide, then Morgen reconnects with raw intensity. Howlings, fast-paced rhythmic, blast and mesmerizing dissonance grab us to the throat before slowing down majestic but weighing tones. We feel blackness and decay that live into the riffs to our soul, like on the long Gegen das Licht. The song takes time to develop its haunting and lethargic ambience that increases until the rhythmic bursts into fire, just before welcoming aggressive and rough vocals. Expect several rhythm changes, but the band cleverly place them under the sign of blackness, which create a coherence between violence and heavy slowness, then a soft voice come to the introduction of Haven, the last song. Quietness meets coldness, and the sound increases until a slow but haunting rhythmic that ends after a last whisper.
Once again, Der Weg Einer Freiheit drags us to the shadows while making us fall in love with it. Noktvrn obviously offers this raw, visceral and seizing Black Metal basis, but also more soaring, mysterious and airy lulls that will amaze us.
95/100
