Amala & Kamala

She-Wolf

The Demon Of The Mire

The Black Pharaoh Trilogy

Introduction

Part I: The shining Trapezohedron

Part II: The Vault of Nephren-Ka

 

The Eldrich Beguilement

Evil is of old Date

By our Brotherhood with Seth  

Schwadorf - Guitars, Bass, Vocals
Konstanz - Vocals, Drums, Keyboards

THE VISION BLEAK: "The Wolves go hunt their Prey"  the vision bleak       

review  by dalia "gryphon_spirit" di giacomo ___             

For those who know, for those who are, 

for  those who go hunt their prey.

"The Wolves go hunt their Prey" is one of the most impressive results of musical evolution. . Do you remember this band at the time of  those sorrowful, a bit catatonic songs like The sleepy Song and To the silent Waters (Promo anno domini 2002)? I was a “fan” of the track To the silent Waters…and still I am, cause it was a good expression of Gothic. But passing through "The Deathship has a new Captain" and "Carpathia – A dramatic Poem", The Vision Bleak has become so atmospheric and strong that you hardly swim  in silent waters once more, ...on the contrary.  Indeed  this third full length, recently released again through Prophecy Productions, is, till now, really the strongest opus of the Franconian duo and will capture the attention of the extreme listeners who  like  anyway evocative  emphasis. Practically divided in 3  parts, this album  openly mixes, epic/occult/horror themes with drops of Death metal, orchestral grandeur and their typical touch of Gothic. 

The title comes from the lyrics of the song Carpathia (second full length - As when darkness fell in the deep pine woods
And the wolves go hunt their prey! - ), underlining the connection with the previous work, nonetheless this could also mean that the band is ready for a more evil creativity in the future.

But let’s begin  from the instrumental opener: Amala & Kamala (two young Indian children abducted by a she-wolf, and discovered in 1920) which is  the prelude (both musical and conceptual ) to the second track She-Wolf . The almost 2 minutes- long march grows in energy and gravity like the introduction to a movie, proposing the refrain-  line of the second track. This opener is adventurous,yes,  nostalgic and dark but adventurous at the same time: the right warm up for She-Wolf  where Death/Thrash rhythms  explode in an imposant mid/uptempo that commands the atmospheric melancholy. The track hits the brain directly,  involving passages rooted to  the 80’s  as well as up-to-date techniques. She-Wolf is rich yet immediately understandable, its refrain opens up a window  for a dark sense of ambush, besides it offers also backing  vocals and good passages of lead, as well  as persisting riffs. But the great appearance comes next and is called Demon of the Mire. The base line recalls the cadenced pace of old Metallica which flows into visions of Death and Gothic aura. Opened and closed by an aggressive Death/thrash  riff where guitars can express their elasticity supported by an enough violent drumming, this song is well conceived and surely one of the best in the album. Here the perfect  fusion between gothic vocals, atmosphere and extreme metal can triumph as possible, plausible , appealing, going beyond the gothic metal. Here we are indeed in a Death/ Thrash that  looks at the Gothic and not viceversa.

The Pharaoh trilogy (very likely inspired from tales by H.P. Lovecraft) opens up with the mainly instrumental Introduction an unmistakable epic timbre of sitars, gongs and all atmospheric sounds normally related to the historical perceiving of the old Egyptian mysteries (i would like to listen to some diehard fan of Nile here), enforced by a varied chorus. But the rest is in perfect synchrony with the rest of the album, nonetheless remaining a chapter of its own. Part I: The shining Trapezohedron is a  rocking, deathed gothic that impacts wonderfully. Part II: The vault of Nephren-Ka delivers compelling aggressive guitars that are the pillars for a vault full of menace and atmosphere. A central slow down with choruses and arpeggiated acoustic tones pave the way  for the  orchestral propulsion and the return of the riffs.

Out from the trilogy, The Eldrich Beguilement is practically a melodic death with deep vocals in clear  where bass and cymbals and groove guitars present a noticeable ability. The following Evil is of Old Date, which maybe  declaims the philosophy of the album, is a track based on a great and diversified ability of the instruments nonetheless too rock /classic metal oriented although very morphed by the dark possession. Honestly is the one track I don’t like at all. By our Brotherhood with Seth is a kind of dark anthemic song (with some folk proceeding in the rhythm- and not instrumentally!) , which should end the CD in glory and actually, from the instrumental point of view, again we find the valuable techniques, but, unfortunately, the compositive side is far from being brilliant, just reaching normality and or even banality. I don’t agree that this song  can become the new “flag” of the band, at  least, not surely for me. The Demon of the Mire and The Eldrtich Beguilement, for example, are another class: those should become, in my opinion, the new signature of the band. 

All in all,  The Vision Bleak has impressed me considerably during the 7 tracks that have satisfied my thirst of Death and Darkness. When I write, The vision Bleak has entered the German Media Control charts on the wave of a very fast success. It couldn’t be otherwise, cause this album is agreeably  robust for Thrashers, Deathers and, finally, for Gothic people too.  The themes treated, from the nocturnal lupine ferity (able to change radically  the human features) to Lovecraft's unspeakable cults, underline that sense of secret awareness.  A cognitive process  for those who know, for those who are, for  those who go hunt their prey, before the prey hunts them.  

Rating: 8,9/10 

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