Waldgeflüster has big plans for its 20th anniversary.
Barely two years have passed since their last EP, but Winterherz (vocals/instruments, Uprising, Scarcross), Thomas Birkmaier (drums, Scarcross, Beyond the Sun), Markus Frey (guitar, Sinism), Dominik Frank (guitar/backing vocals, The Course Is Black, Meridian, Beyond the Sun) and Martin Schirmann (bass, Funeral Pile, Meridian) are already announcing the release of not one but two albums, Knochengesänge and Knochengesänge II, on AOP Records.
Charlie Anderson (Panopticon) handles the strings for both albums, and Arvagr (Dagnir en Gwann, ex-Waldgeflüster) plays piano on the second one.
We begin the first part of this adventure gently with Krähenpsalme, a track that quickly ignites to shelter the striking screams of Winterherz, joined by Austin Lunn (Panopticon), who naturally adapts to the rhythm section’s fury. There are also a few softer, more dreamy passages to counterbalance the darkness and give it a different flavor, sometimes combining to create ethereal tones before joining Bamberg, 20. Juni and its cold melancholy that transforms into heavy riffs and heart-wrenching screams, sampled voices and clear vocals that testify to a united diversity. Although I don’t understand German, I can still feel all the distress in the saturated voice and the temporary calm of the singing, which leads us to a very bright finale before Der kleinste König und sein Architekt takes its place, offering us its dissonance and then its rage through intense, very regular and intoxicating rhythms. The band still allows us to enjoy a short break before restarting the machine that carries us to Von Hypnos und Thanatos, where the dreamlike introduction is also broken by the power of saturation, recreating the dark and majestic hurricane that carries our minds away on its waves of virulence and moments of fleeting tranquility. The choirs play a fairly important role in the latter, as does the string-accompanied finale that leads to Lethe – Der Fluch des Schaffenden, where the sound becomes haunting again, welcoming Alboin (Eïs) for a poignant vocal duet, but it should be noted that the track places more emphasis on breaks and refined parts, corrupted by screams. Knochengesang then begins, offering a moment of respite that rubs off on the future riffs and making the song quite contrasting between its soft atmosphere and its rawer elements, daring a heavier passage before giving way to The Parting Glass, a fairly short and much more accessible song sung in English that closes this first chapter in a fairly simple but still dreamy way.
We immediately move on to the first notes of Das Klagelied der Krähen, which offer us a new dose of acoustic softness, supported by strings and keyboards that accentuate the misty tones, but the saturation returns as soon as Frankfurt, 19. März adopts a slowness worthy of doom metal to weave its melodies. Although relatively different from what the band has accustomed us to, we feel all the melancholic darkness in this song, where clear vocals dominate, barely complemented by a few growled choruses, while The Little King and his Architect offers us a different interpretation of the song from the previous album. The band is once again joined by Austin Lunn (Panopticon), this time on drums, accompanying the ethereal riffs that invade our minds before a long piano finale where the vocals seem to fade away before Crusade in the Dark adopts a more energetic approach, although ultimately still haunting. The sound is sometimes a little muffled, refined or, on the contrary, deliberately heavy, allowing the vocalist to lead the dance, as when the break ends and we set off again with the musicians in these vaporous touches before joining those of In Lethes Fluten, which sounds like a sad lullaby to my ears. The track borrows as much from post-rock and shoegaze as it does from Post Punk-oriented tones in the passages where keyboards invade the atmosphere and whispers arise, but these solemn elements disappear with the arrival of Singing of Bones, which is more organic, combining expressive vocals, ambient guitars, and other tortured strings for a moment of relaxation during which the vocalist is put to the test, followed by an a cappella version of The Parting Glass that lets him close the album alone.
Waldgeflüster has clearly stepped out of its comfort zone with this release. While Knochengesänge gives us exactly what we wanted in terms of intensity and darkness, Knochengesänge II allows us to discover another side of this band, one that is more vulnerable and refined.
95/100
