Leipa is back.
Created in Germany in 2021 by Noise (all instruments/vocals, Non Est Deus, Kanonenfieber), the project releases a first album the same year. In 2023, Reue comes out in collaboration with Noisebringer Records and Avantgarde Music.
The album opens with 01.09.2015, a song which obviously evokes a date, and which makes us sink into a moody atmosphere before dropping aggressive and sharp riffs infused with Melodic Black Metal. Raw screams and dissonance accentuate the dark oppression while leading us to the equally heavy Fremdkörper, a composition on which we also have Dany Tee (Los Males Del Mundo, Acathexis) relying on blast and frantic riffs to place piercing screams before letting a soft break soothe us, but the crushing sound resurfaces with a dull slowness. Speed will close the track, which gives way to the eponymous Reue and its gentle introduction, broken again by waves of high-tempo saturation igniting the seizing contrast before Tier unveils majestic orchestrations to accompany his searing riffs. The atmosphere is heavy and heartbreaking again, just like on Abgang and its melancholic tones which skillfully mix with the vocalist’s visceral rage, who will still let some stabbing parts haunt the rhythmic. The final lets us breathe before Schlaf reveals his melancholy, followed by airy and ghostly sounds, a disturbing vocal sample, but also this heavy and sometimes aggressive mix, which will finally guide us to Rauch and its Old School sounds. The track will quickly accelerate before letting softness allow us to breathe, then the wave of raw strength revives in the company of unhealthy and raw vocals, which again gives way to softness before striking again until the last moment.
Leipa is a discovery for me, and even if its creator is not unknown to me, I did not expect such strength. Reue is raw, visceral and sincere, letting melancholic sounds soothe the inner hellish rage.
90/100