Luzide Träume

„Luzide Träume“ (lucid dreams in English) means something like controlled dreams. There is a theory, or maybe even a proved fact, that the human mind is able to actively influence dream sequences. From a quick research it seems that there are even training methods teaching people how to do this. This whole thing sounds spooky yet fascinating at the same time. Something similar could be said about the full length debut by German outfit Epiphanie which has finally been released on Der Neue Weg Productions.

The somewhat odd production quality gives the album a raw sound many times throughout, especially in terms of the vocal aspects. Overall this album owes a lot to the so called second wave of Scandinavian black metal, but there is also quite a portion of the rawness that came with the first black metal bands in the eighties. A lot of emphasis has been put on embedding moody parts to accompany the tremolo attacking and the shredding guitar tone. The German lyrics underline the obscure character of the record. Epiphanie have produced a fantastic example of how to put all those ingredients together to build an impressive and occult masterpiece.

The interaction of these different moods is what makes Epiphanie stand out from the pack. They cleverly took the trademark riffs of each track and sliced and diced them to give the songs another layer. Some of the hooks are very memorable so after the second or third listen you are going to recognize most of the lead lines, and it will become easy to distinguish one song from the other and see the whole picture that the band wanted to create.

The drumming is straight-forward (programmed or not) and while there are some faster sections and a lot of details like fills or rhythm changes to highlight certain parts it never feels nervous or overly chaotic. It has been put a lot of emphasis on presenting stringent songs and a nicely flowing album drawing the listener into an obscure and fascinating place.

The production is a bit rougher compared to some other similar works but somehow this fact just adds to the overall fascination. The mix is overall well balanced so the various details can be fully recognized. The howling vocals underline the atmosphere as well as the weird but interesting cover. Overall a great little gem.