Trollheart

During the last Metal Month I looked into three albums from Virgin Steele which were linked by a common theme, these being “The marriage of Heaven and Hell” trilogy, as it were. This year I want to step away from Power Metal and go completely the other direction, choosing a band which many may blink at and wonder why I would do such a thing, knowing my personal tastes. There are a few reasons for this, most of which revolve around it being difficult, insofar as I tried, to get three albums that have something to do with each other, outside of the power/progressive metal area, and I didn't want to be too predictable. I originally was going to do the first three Manowar albums, but I had already reviewed “Hail to England” and used “Battle hymns”, so that didn't leave much that I knew.


I quite honestly don't know what links these albums, but as I said when I started this section, the link could be as simple as all the albums being by the same band. I think though the idea here is that the trilogy chosen here shows a clear and interesting progression through the different influences on the band and the subgenres they pass through during the course of a mere two years. It's said that their sound altered radically during that time, so I'm interested to see how it did change. I've never heard, nor heard of this band before, but no doubt Batty will be chuckling evilly to himself that I don't know what I've let myself in for. Be that as it may, let's step towards the gates to Hell, shall we, and see if anyone's home.

First spell --- Gehenna --- 1994 (Head Not Found)
Not an album but an EP, this still has five tracks and while none are monsters they all clock in around the six-minute mark, bar one, so it still runs an impressive half-hour plus. Formed in 1993 by guitarist Sanrabb and vocalist Dolgar, Gehenna have an odd take on their Satanist leanings. Unlike Watain, who professes to believe implicitly in a dark force known as Satan and pours bitter scorn on bands who claim the tag Black Metal while being nothing close to Satanists, Sanrabb explains that they see Satan more as a non-physical force, and scoff at the idea some people have that he would serve them, or indeed they he, as they say Satan hates every living being. And yet they sing about him. But to quote Sanrabb; “The thing is, it's (their lyrics) not purely based on Satanic beliefs or politics or whatever. Because we don't want to deal in propaganda for this or that. […] It's about music, it is - as I said - a medium for our thoughts and feelings. It is also ever-changing.”


Sanrabb does not believe in conducting Satanic rituals, real or otherwise, as he wisely says “absolutely nothing good will come of it.” It would appear that while they believe in Satan --- or at least, an ultimate evil in the universe --- they have no interest in calling it forth, and use Satan as merely a vehicle for their lyrics. To that end, they prefer not to be labelled as Black Metal --- or indeed, to have any label thrust upon them --- so we will have to see whether or not they have been unfairly or misguidedly branded.


There's certainly a sepulchral feel to the opening track, “The shivering voice of the ghost”, with a church organ taking the intro solo before some guitar wends its way into the proceedings, then the tempo ups and Sarcana on the keys runs off a very progressive metal riff --- hold on just one moment: did I say keyboards? On a Black Metal album? It would seem so, and therefore weight is already lent to the argument that Gehenna cannot fall under the same Black Metal banner as other bands with which they are grouped. The vocal from Dolgar is certainly what you would expect of a Black Metal singer: dark, growly, scary, almost indecipherable, but this jars sharply with the intricate keyboards of Sarcana and the frankly restrained guitars of Sanrabb, while Dirge Rep and Svartalv lay down the softest, relatively, rhythm I've ever heard on an album that purports to be from this subgenre. In fact, were it not for the vocals I would not even consider labelling this album --- at least, on the basis of this track --- as anything close to Black Metal.


It has a real hook in it too, and though there are no guitar solos and it's driven almost exclusively on Sarcana's keyboard melody, it's still heavy enough to qualify as proper metal. Just not Black. It's a great start for me, who was expecting something much harsher and rawer, and as we move into “Unearthly loose palace” that almost progressive/new wave keyboard continues to ply its trade, making this so much more a listenable album than I had thought it would be. The tempo, too, is far lower than you would expect from Black Metal, which usually, at least in the examples I've heard, is either crushingly slow or necksnappingly fast. Sanrabb's guitars start to make something more of an impression now, though again it's the keys that really hold court. Some great choral vocals coming in now (presumably on the synth) and a superbly evocative guitar solo from Sanrabb as the song begins to lose some momentum, but none of its quality, as it slows down.


It may be that Gehenna are not considered true Black Metal, but if they are, or can fit into that description, then this is the best Black Metal album I've ever heard, and if there are others of this ilk it could change my mind about the whole subgenre. I get the feeling though that they're more a blend of styles, with gothic, elements of death and black, and progressive and symphonic metal all in there, going to make something that is very much more than the sum of its parts. “Angelwings and ravenclaws”, the shortest track on the album, sound more like a new-wave song, the knd of thing you might hear if you allied metal guitar to Depeche Mode or OMD or Visage. Quite stunning really. Harder and a little more aggressive is “The conquering of Histir”, with a driving drumbeat from Dirge Rep and an almost incongruous keyboard sound that is close to pan pipes running through the tale of, it would seem, the end of days, a popular subject of course with those who fly the Black Metal flag.


Very dramatic, with an almost reflective midsection that rides as usual on Sarcana's expert keyboard lines, and very very listenable. “Morningstar”, the final track, is the only one that makes me think that maybe we're going to hear some “basic” Black Metal, with a grindy, slow, doomy beginning, but even that kicks up very quickly into a good riffing style and bops along on yet another bubbly keyboard line. At least the lyric is Black Metal 101: ”Before the sun, a star sends its light /Set your ritual.........right/ Streams of torment/ Streams of blood/ Fear for your flesh /Fear for your soul, your spirit .” But the lyric is almost belied by the uptempo, rocky, almost happy metal that underpins it. Really, if you ignore Dolgar, you can imagine this as any sort of prog/power/symphonic or any other subgenre metal you want. It really is the most listenable Black Metal album --- or an album masquerading as Black Metal --- that I have ever heard.


TRACKLISTING

1.The shivering voice of the ghost
2. Unearthly loose palace
3. Angelwings and ravenclaws
4. The conquering of Hirsir
5. Morningstar


On the reissued album there are a lot more tracks --- an additional nine --- but as I usually shy from including bonus tracks, and as there are so many of them here, with still two full albums to review and the sands of time slowly draining away on me, I'm going to put them on hold here. If I have time I will come back to them, but if not I'll leave this in the way it was originally intended, as a five-track EP, a record that has, quite unexpectedly, blown me away and made me want to hear more.


And here is more.

Seen through the veils of darkness (The second spell) ---- Gehenna --- 1995 (Cacophonous Records)
I suppose now the question is, if Gehenna's sound changed so radically over the next two albums, am I in for a more Black Metal experience with this second one --- their first proper album, as opposed to an EP? Will the symphonic, even melodic elements be dropped in favour of a harder, more stripped-down approach? Well, let's see: Sarcana still does his keyboards and organs, so no worries there, and even Dirge Rep is bringing in ... tambourine? So is it possible we're going to be leaning further away from pure Black Metal, as opposed to towards it?


Well, opener “Lord of flies” opens with the sort of guitar that sounds like a train approaching, and the music is definitely harder now, more on the metal side of things, with fast, furious drumming and Dolgar's by-now familiar growling scream. I don't hear the keys much in the mix if at all, though now I do, with a sort of violin or cello sound, the frenetic rhythm slowing down into something of a pagan waltz, the drums cutting back too for a short while. But then it kicks back up again, so that it's swinging from one extreme to the other. Little hard to get your head around, I feel. Certainly a big step away from the pure melody of “First spell”. Whether it's progression or regression I'll reserve judgement on for now.


That sort of tuneful melody returns in part for “Shairak Kinnummh”, which has touches of Viking Metal about it, Sarcana's keys coming a little more to the fore now. The song has become much faster though, and is now more in line with what most people would probably recognise as Black Metal, of a sort anyway. There's still a sense of progressive metal in there though, mostly through the keyswork, especially the organ. There's a guest slot for Garm, vocalist for Sunn O))) as well as Ulver on “Vinterikket”, but to be honest they both sound the same to my untrained Black Metal ear. It's certainly a faster, thrashier song though, with energy and power. Kind of a chanted vocal in it too. Ends suddenly, then we're into “A witch is born”, which has a kind of Sabbath/Electric Wizard vibe to it and pulls back from the overall Black Metal direction in which the last few tracks have been going.


Still very guitar-driven though, so it's Sanrabb who takes control, unlike the EP, where his keyboard buddy called the shots. Oddly, I can actually make out most of what Dolgar is singing here, and yet he doesn't seem to have changed his style al that much: am I getting used to this kind of vocal, I wonder? Better able to interpret it? Or is it because I looked at the lyric sheet and can now transpose that to what I'm hearing? Either way, it makes the experience a little less frustrating. The title track is another hammering guitar tune, but with Sarcana adding his own touches on the keys, the tune itself slowing in the midsection then picking up again. Sounds like some nice rippling piano there, while “The mystical play of shadows” and “The eyes of the sun” are the two shortest tracks on the album, paving the way for the longest. The former is a fast, guitar-driven song with a lot of keyboard flourishes, and in fact contains the first guitar solo I've heard from these guys.


“The eyes of the sun” on the other hand is something of a return to the more melodic sound of the EP, slower and more dramatic with a lot of Sarcana's keyboard work, though there's some disturbing screaming --- sounds female --- near the end, like someone's being murdered. That takes us to the penultimate, and longest track, which kicks off with a real indie rock vibe on the guitar. I'm not kidding! This sounds sort of REM and trips along nicely but doesn't batter you down. “A myth...” runs for just shy of nine minutes, so I'm expecting it to change over the course of its run. And it does, but not that much. Gets a bit kind of I guess you could say rompy in the fourth minute and then falls right back to ambient territory with lush synth and effects, a whispered vocal from Dolgar and a real sense of waiting for something to happen.


Rather nice little bassline from Svartalv (whose name I have just now worked out means “Dark Elf”: cool!) and then it happens. Big scream, the drums explode into life and Sanrabb lets loose on the guitar as the song heads into its seventh minute, even throwing in a shot of reggae along the way. Piano from Sarcana joins the tune as we move into the final minute and it really starts to rock. The closer then keeps the tempo sort of mid-paced but pushes poor old Sarcana out of the picture really as Sanrabb takes the song. Apparently he sings on this one too, but again I don't hear any difference.


TRACKLISTING

1. Lord of flies
2. Shairak Kinnummh
3. Vinterriket
4. A witch is born
5. Through the veils of darkness
6. The mystical play of shadows
7. The eye of the sun
8. A myth...
9. Dark poems author


While there's not what I'd call a cosmic shift here, this second offering is very much different from Gehenna's EP. The melody and structure is still there but there's more of an emphasis, generally, on harder, tighter riffs and as I say Sarcana is only called upon when needed, where on “First spell” he more or less ran the show. No change in the vocals department: despite there being three different singers used on this album I heard no discernible difference. I can see why people say the band evolved though, and I'm interested to see how, or if, this evolution continued on into their second album.


So let's find out.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

Well, you know how those Irish are, with their lack of understanding of things.

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The Batlord

Have you actually listened to a Children of Bodom album? With your newfound ability to tolerate at least some extreme metal vocals, I think they might just be up your alley. Their sound is more power metal/Maiden than it is thrash, they're catchy and melodic as all hell, and Alexi Laiho is far-and-away more tolerable a vocalist than most growlers/screamers.

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Trollheart

Yep. I listened to one last year for Metal Month. Don't recall enjoying it but I might give them another go at some point.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Unknown Soldier

Didn't know that Children of Bodom had covered that Journey track, not a bad cover but few vocalists could ever hope to match the power of Steve Perry.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Trollheart

For my final look at German metal I’m going to actively seek out a Black Metal album, just so I can’t be accused of only listening to the sort of Metal I enjoy. I’m sure with Germany’s dark past, both mythological and historical, there will be one or two lurking just out of sight around the corner.

Pray for me…

Okay, okay! I realise I’m cheating slightly here. So it’s atmospheric Black Metal with a strong interest in Norse mythology: it’s still categorised as Black Metal, huh? Hey, I could hate it, you know? Though considering that the band took their name from the Rainbow Bridge that spans the space between Midgard and Asgard (man I love Norse mythos!) that seems unlikely. Perhaps something along the lines of the Bathory albums I reviewed for the Viking Metal segment? Huh? Huh?

Meh, have it your own way. This is the one I’m going for anyway, and it comes highly recommended by some guy I met online, so this is where I end my very brief and not at all inclusive look at what Germany has to offer in the way of Heavy Metal. I guess I could have spent the whole month trawling through the many and varied bands, and subgenres, to come out of this country, but I wanted to ensure that I looked at a different country each week, and so here, for now at any rate, is where we end up.


Rain upon the impure --- The Ruins of Beverast --- 2006 (Van Records)

What’s really interesting, and disturbing, about this band is that the album after this is titled “Foulest semen of a sheltered elite”, which sounds more like something Cryptopsy (yes, them again! My sleep will forever be tortured by remembrances of their horrible music) would release, but that’s not the one I’m going for. As an aside, looking at the track listing for that album I don’t see any nasty or questionable song titles, so maybe it’s just the album title that’s a little risque? Anyway as I say, this is the one I’ve chosen and it’s their second album, in a career that has been relatively fresh, the band only forming in 2003. Yes I know that’s eleven years together, more than many other bands manage, but some of the acts I’ve looked at here have been around since the 80s, so it doesn’t seem as long a period.

I’ve also had my fill of the German tongue (ooer!) --- sorry you natives but it’s an awfully harsh language, as I’ve said before, and I don’t like not being able to talk about the lyrics, unless the music is really good. So another factor in my choosing this album has been that all the songs are sung in English! Hooray! Whether or not I’ll be able to make out the vocals (Black Metal is one of those that does tend to favour the harsh, scratchy or roared growly vocals, as I've been made more than uncomfortably aware of) is another matter, but we’ll see, We open with “50 forts on the Rhine”, presumably the recounting of some ancient battle, and I note it’s thirteen minutes long! The next one is fifteen! Oh dear. The sound of galloping horses and the cries of battle are drowned out by a big roar and hammering guitars, and it looks like the laugh is on me. Ambient? This doesn’t sound fucking ambient!

It’s pretty much the same guitar riff for two minutes, with crashing drums and no sign yet of a vocal, though that roar was far from encouraging! Kind of a choral vocal though breaking out in the background, but we’re now four minutes in and all I can hear is a horrible deathly growl. Whether that’s supposed to be the vocals or not I don’t know, but if so then there’s egg on my face: I am NOT going to enjoy this! The guitars drop back then to a more restrained, almost acoustic level, with kind of pealing bells in the melody, dark thunder rolling and then a stronger guitar coming back in. Now I look, I see this is all the work of a single individual, one Alexander von Mellenweld. Sounds like a demon to me! But fair play to him if he does all this himself. Maybe those lyric sheets won’t be needed after all!

I’m sure Batty is laughing his ass off at me. I thought this was going to be something like When Bitter Spring Sleeps. Um, yeah. Not quite. I can’t make out a single vocal; I don’t mean to be cruel but it sound more like a rabid dog or some madman trying to break free. So let’s ignore the vocals --- such as they are ---and, Panopticonlike, concentrate on the music, which has returned to harsh guitar but at least it’s got a certain melody to it. Oh wait! I understood a few words there! Ol’ Alex dropped his voice an octave and I caught a sentence about being at war, or something. Didn’t last though.

So we have a fifteen minute track after this, another fifteen minute one, a sixteen and a fourteen minute, so even with only seven tracks this still runs close to an hour and a half. As I said, pray for me. So much for my easy exit! Guitar work is damn good, and to be honest were there no vocals I would probably appreciate this more. Still, it’s going to be something of a slog to the end if it’s all like this. “Soliloquy of the stigmatised shepherd” (what’s with these weird song titles? What happened to “Satan is our pal?”) has another heavy guitar opening, the sound at times like someone is trying to throttle the instrument using its own strings. It’s heavy as all hell, that’s for sure, and dark as fuck, but so far it’s kind of all a little too much of the same. I hardly realised the first track had ended and the second begun. I guess if you had to have a soundtrack to Armageddon as Satan’s minions swarmed over the Earth harvesting souls, this could be it.

Wait just one tension-popping moment! There’s a real ambient guitar there, and something that could be a synth in the background. A harder guitar takes over, but the quieter one remains in the background, not giving up, sort of like an acolyte standing aside as its master reveals himself. Again, ooeer! Seems this guy is a member of Nagelfar, which I know to be the ship of the dead that Surt will sail at the end of days, as Ragnarok falls upon the world (see, I know this stuff!) and so his interest in Norse legend is understandable. Meanwhile, this song has taken something of a turn for the weird, or weirder. It’s much slower, doom metal slow, and now there’s an odd chimy guitar sort of clanging away too. Nice kind of choral vocal going there, supposedly on the keyboards if he does everything himself.

I never quite understand why vocalists like this sing as they do. The lyrics to the songs are quite impressive, but I have no chance in hell of ever hearing a word or understanding it --- I did better with Rammstein! --- and so can only read them. This appears to be the lament of a shepherd forced to walk the world, possibly immortal --- Kane? But this album seems based on Norse folklore, although the battle referred to in the opener seemed to be from Germanic history. Maybe. Hard to tell. Very dramatic sound now as the synths push to try to dislodge the skullcrushing guitar, but it’s having none of it.

The annoying thing --- for me --- is that this could be a decent album if I could understand what was being sung --- caught some words there at the end --- but there’s just no way to do that. Guess you have to be into Black Metal to really appreciate what’s going on here. Nice fadeout on the guitar. There’s a short, atmospheric synth piece then --- just over a minute --- before we launch into another fifteen-minuter, this time titled “Blood vaults (I: Thy virginal malodour)” --- snappy title. Don’t think I’ll want to hang around for II, which doesn’t appear to be on this album. It’s another constant riff on the guitar with attendant growls, pretty much more of the same really. Sneak a look at the lyric, why don’t we?

Um, yeah. I think it’s about a witch or witches waiting in a cell to be burned. Or it could be more cerebral than that. Hard to tell. Or care, if I’m honest. Seems to have entered a kind of pealing, ringing deal, presumably either meant to represent the tolling of a death bell or just a general image of Christianity which, given this is Black Metal, Alex is surely against. Dark kind of whispering and chanting adds to the unsettling atmosphere, and you can actually imagine some poor victim of the Inquisition languishing in a cell, condemned out of hand and waiting to be burned at the stake. The Church has a lot to answer for.

There’s a sixteen minute track to follow; “Soil of the incestuous” opens with a female voice (perhaps a recording, as nobody else is, um, credited here) saying ”I am the wandering moon and sun/ The rabbit and the snake/ The virgin and the rapist my shadow” --- nice to hear at least some words I can make out. Has a nice melodious guitar to it too, though of course that doesn’t last. Generally, throughout its run it’s more of the same, though the female voice does come in once more. The only really short actual track is up next, with some sort of allusion to Norse mythology with the mention of the world serpent Jormungand, but I don’t recognise “Balnaa-Keill the Bleak” from Norse legend. At least it’s short, which is about all I can say good about this.

Unfair of course. I’m sure this is considered essential music in Black Metal circles, and some has labelled this album a masterpiece, but it’s so removed from what I enjoy or can tolerate that it’s mostly just noise to me. Again that’s unfair: there is music, very discernible, but it’s kind of like a wall of sound, hard to pull any meaning or melody from it. Hum Factor definitely zero! This track is quiet, other than the gutteral vocal, with kind of synth noises and a screeching guitar but quite low in the mix, then we’re into --- finally, and with significant relief on my part --- the closer, but temper that relief with horror, because as we know it’s another epic.

It’s the title track as it happens, and it’s fourteen minutes and change, opening with in fairness a nice reflective guitar, though that hammering one is always there, a constant in the music, like the beat of a metronome or a black heart. High-pitched choral vocals and slow drumming as Alex rails against, it seems, the hypocrisy of the Church and Christ in general. Ah bless! He throws in part of a mass, just to underline the point. Then it all goes into overdrive on bombing drums and, well, fast guitar. You know, I went out of the room, downstairs, let my cat in, comforted him as he has been stalked by a dog, gave him some food and came back up and the SAME melody and rhythm is still playing! So I guess I didn’t miss much…

Well, only about four minutes left to suffer, I mean go. I’ll be glad when this is over. And now it is. With a final tortured scream from one of no doubt his many guitars, Alex brings this one hour twenty minute torment to a shuddering close, and I can tell you, I shudder!

TRACKLISTING

1. 50 forts along the Rhine
2. Soliloquy of the stigmatised shepherd
3. Rapture
4. Blood vaults (I: Thy virginal malodour)
5. Soil of the incestuous
6. Balnaa-Kheil the Bleak
7. Rain upon the impure

So I guess fate has the last laugh on me, didn’t she? Thinking I would defeat the letter of the law with the spirit of the law, as it were, I ended up entangled in a horrible web of screaming, growling vocals, brain-pounding guitars and thundering drums, an ordeal that went on for what seemed a lot longer than the eighty minutes shown. That’ll teach me, huh? Not quite as bad as Cryptopsy, sure, but still well up there with the worst I’ve heard in a long time, which is not to denigrate the music or the artiste, I just am so not into this kind of music it’s untrue. I’m sure many of you out there are scratching your heads and saying “How can he be saying that about one of my favourite German Black Metal albums?” Well, you’re welcome to it!

And so ends my brief foray through the Metal landcape of Germany. Been fun, sort of. Got to hear some good bands, some okay bands and some downright painful bands. There’s no question that Germany is both one of the founders and continues to be one of the leaders in the field of Heavy Metal, and there’s a rich and varied mix of subgenres out there, the surface of which I have of course only barely scratched this past week. But it’s time to move on, not too far this time, and next week as Metal Month moves into its third quarter I’ll be heading south, over the border to Spain, to see what they have to offer.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

Wow. Even Trollheart thinks that an aural blitzkrieg of pure death metal noise is apparently vastly superior to boring riffs and talentless rap. So, it's Thorr's Hammer and then Gnaw Their Tongues, right?

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Trollheart

Thought I might get GTT over with, but if you want to do it in that order, okay. Just let me know. Yeah I know: I hated Cryptopsy, but the fact was I couldn't make out any of the lyrics whereas here I, rather unfortunately, could. If it's a choice between grindcore and Limp B, grind me up!

Which reminds me, time to do another "Meat Grinder"....

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

Gnaw Their Tongues should definitely come last. I planned it for my big finale.

Oh, and if you want some of Cryptopsy's lyrics...

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Mondo Bungle

Not impressed with the best song on Piece of Mind and one of the best Maiden tracks of all time huh...

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