Machtklang celebrates its reincarnation with a debut album.
Soberly titled Machtklang, it allows Christina “Herrin” (all instruments/vocals, Being “Alive” Is Beautiful) to revive her musical project known from 2008 to 2021 as Finsterort.
We start with the aptly named Ein Klang, a single bell ringing in the air, before giving way to Tief Begraben, a haunting composition rooted in Black Metal and its unhealthy saturation, but which offers obvious Doom overtones, particularly through its rather heavy rhythm. Vocal parts at first seem muffled, as do the double-kick moments that make the track more intense, then they diversify to offer a fairly wide range between wail and growl, finally leading us to the devastating Machtklang, the eponymous composition. The tempo is already much more sustained here, but the heavy atmosphere remains and supports the darkness of the riffs, completing this hazy mix where the most aggressive moments are almost too saturated, but which fits perfectly with the few moments of floating that the musician allows us. The dissonance becomes more pronounced on Panzerbataillon Prometheus, contributing to this menacing climate where a few German vocal samples appear, but also some slightly crazy harmonics, sometimes barely audible, then we move on to the heady Dissonanz, where a few crystalline notes mingle in the silence. The track is fairly short, but it gives us a chance to breathe before Herbsthymne tramples us in turn, leaving the vocalist to howl in the company of another, more solemn voice, then the rhythm moves forward alone and stops abruptly, signing the end of the EP.
Although I find Machtklang‘s potential interesting, it remains relatively unexploited on this EP. Machtklang knows how to handle oppression, but the mix doesn’t really pay tribute to it, and the project would need further work to reveal its true power.
70/100
