Der Weg Einer Freiheit begins a new chapter.
Four years after their last album, Nikita Kamprad (vocals/guitar, live for Los Males del Mundo), Tobias Schuler (drums, live for Los Males del Mundo), Nicolas Rausch (guitar, The August), and Alan Noruspur (live for Los Males del Mundo) unveil their sixth album, Innern.
The album begins with Marter, which first takes the time to envelop us in mysterious sounds before allowing the sound to develop gradually, only giving way to fury with the arrival of striking screams. The hint of dissonance blends perfectly with the oppressive atmosphere, even offering a touch of light to the surrounding darkness that materializes with the first break, tinging the rest of the track with its lightness contrasted by devastating drums, but the second break revives the anxiety before the sound ignites again, becoming even more visceral than before to join Xibalba. There is a fairly Old School approach to the raw sound, but the arrival of Nikita‘s screams makes the track even more terrifying, offering a highly polished but explosive base that reveals its full potential in the most devastating passages, which invade our minds in no time at all, haunting them and subjecting them to its frenetic rhythm. The break comes as a relief and imposes a completely different, much more dreamy pace at the end of the track before letting Eos follow suit and place haunting tones to hold our attention before calmly intensifying the rhythm until that rather heavy moment when the rhythm becomes darker and more aggressive, even offering a few guttural choirs before the screams resume. The heart-wrenching leads add the perfect emotional touch, as do the final poignant cries that rush us towards the end of the track, followed by Fragment, which slowly restarts and guides us towards a new wave of melancholy, complemented by soothing clean vocals that temper the rhythm before finally letting it give way to fury once again to become truly epic, resuming the screams at the same time. The piano in Finisterre III offers us a macabre but welcome interlude before Forlorn takes its place, first in a very vaporous way and then adopting an almost Post-Punk approach until about halfway through the song, before Black Metal weaves its aggression to tarnish the composition until the light final.
If you didn’t already know, Der Weg Einer Freiheit is a master at creating these striking atmospheres, leading us deeper into the darkness of our minds. Innern unashamedly takes its place on the shelf of the best releases of the year.
95/100
