Karg speaks again with his new album.
Led since 2006 by V. Wahntraum (all instruments/vocals, Harakiri for the Sky, Lûs…), the project regularly releases albums and EPs. In 2022, the musician announces the release of Resignation, his eighth album, on AOP Records.
V. Wahntraum is in charge of vocals, bass and glockenspiel, accompanied by Daniel Lang (guitar/vocals), Chris Purch (guitar/vocals), Georg Traschwandtner (guitar) and P.F. (drums, Nekrodeus, Norikum, Groza, Ellende…), as well as many guests.
Was bleibt, the first track, slowly starts with a bewitching sound before welcoming some percussions, melodious leads, and finally this wave of as raw as melancholic saturation. Heartbreaking screams join the mix, and the sound softly navigates between sadness and rage before welcoming Christoph Höhl‘s trumpet and Klara Bachmair‘s (Firtan) violin for a strangely quiet and luminous final, which guides us to the icy scream that starts EBBE//FLUT, a majestic and piercing composition on which the musician invites I.R. and S.M. from the band E-L-R to help him on vocals. There is a contrast between the multi-instrumentalist’s screams and the softer parts on the soothing break, letting the two parts of the universe meet for a last explosion before P.G. (Groza) joins the musician for a devastating and extremely intense duet on Grab der Wellen. The track, which was the first to be unveiled, is the one on which the vocal parts are the most raw, and even without understanding their meaning (the lyrics are written in the German used near the Tennen Mountains), we can feel them lacerating us while the instrumental lulls us until the final part played again by the violinist, then the long Generation ohne Abschied comes to put a final touch to this album. The magical tones slowly surround us before letting rage flare up once again in the darkness with T.L. (Lûs) and Hip-Hop artist Private Paul on vocals, feeding the diversity of the album under changing and haunting riffs. The tearing choruses perfectly blend with this abrasive slowness, and the few quiet words sound very solemn in the company of the soft melodies, then a rawer voice takes over before screams strike us again under a heavy saturation.
The band also has a surprise for us, which takes the shape of two bonus covers translated into German. Einen Traum weiter dort fangen wir das Licht, a moving and straightforward interpretation of The Cranberries‘ Dreaming my Dreams, which was already been unveiled last winter but its sincere intensity remains intact, allowing the instrumental to strengthen during the track until this final acceleration, then it is with Fieberherz, a cover of Nothing‘s Fever Queen, and its airy Post-Metal accents coupled with tortured and desperate vocals, that the sound will come to die at our feet.
Although Karg remains a fairly underground band, their strength is endless. With Resignation, the band offers us striking, but also very diversified and deep tones, allowing the sound to choke us with its darkness or to comfort us with its sweetness before mixing both aspects to feed a sincere and tortured atmosphere.
95/100