Acid River

Come come, my darlings, and please drown in this acid river poured by these German veterans who have apparently decided to become a regular presence on the scene… or thereabouts. And not only but it seems as though they’re going to capture the magic of their early recordings, the opus reviewed here an assured step in this direction. There’s some great concept around number seven evolving here, the songs’ number, their duration, etc…. thank god they’ve spared us the seven words in the album/song-titles; those were going to be some mouthfuls.

Down by said river everything seems to be near-perfect, though, the guys notching up the dark atmospherics, also bringing back the death, the latter providing the several grand restless, blast-beating insertions on “Essence”, the essence of the band’s style, a consummate progressive doom/death saga with all the seeping drama, the officiant heavy walkabouts, the lyrical deviations, the sudden speedy excursions… a reverential look back at the band’s early-90’s heritage, this composition remains the highlight, but what besieges it is easily spell-binding, the guys also retaining the more dynamic developments from the previous outing, those popping up on nearly every composition, but without ruining the monolithic doomy clout. The apologetically thrashy layout of “Threshold” is the main energetic violator, the band easily putting the reins on their dark art elsewhere, not shying away from a near-funeral-like march (“Lunacy”), the seductive Oriental tunes on “Godforgotten” bringing courteous mild optimism into the instilled danse macabre which also receives a few lyrical balladic strokes from the sombre elegiac doomster “Death Comes in Waves”.

Death comes more than once in a millennium obviously, and we will readily embrace it anytime, be it drowning in an acid river or hurling ourselves into colliding oceans. The guys mean business for a change, and their frequent descents upon the scene seem to be paying off handsomely. The final package here is quite close to the alluring progressive doom/death elitism of their first two instalments; dark, heavy, intense, fast-paced, atmospheric, lyrical on occasion music that has its apt vocal accompaniment in the form of Mertens’ expressive deathly shouts. The man goes over the top a bit, his harsh tirades disturbing a more tenebrous doomy motif here and there, but his has never been a soothing presence so no lullabies of any sort served behind the mike. The lack of another huge overlong closer is also a plus… unless it’s 77-min long of course… we don't want to spoil the concept, after all.

Yep, the band would easily get off the hook even if they’ve been indulging in all the seven deadly sins recently, to submerge themselves deeper into the concept I mean… with the great stuff composed on the music front they have no reasons to worry whatsoever. The river is long, the journey is exciting, surprises are in stall… who knows how much greatness would get generated until this powerful stream collides with the ocean.