Narben der Zeit

Erben der Schöpfung is, was and will be everything but a conventional band. Since their debut album (about 8 years before this one), it was clear that EdS was destined to break the rules and follow a risky path, even in a mostly heterogenous subgenre like gothic metal. It still amazes me that a tiny country like Liechtenstein can hold two of the most precious jewels of an entire subgenre: one is Erben der Schöpfung, the other one is Elis.

8 years have been a long waiting, and such a long time in another situation (or if we were talking about an average gothic, black, trash o death metal band) would have caused a massive and irreversible damage to both the fan base and the experecience in metal for the band, if we weren't talking about EdS. If the band survived the departure of all its members except one (Oli Falk), and came back to life slowly as Mr. Falk was busy finding the best candidates to reform the band, such an enormous interval of time is nothing to the quality of the music. And luckily, the fans didn't forget the band at all.

Back to the present, 2009 brought us EdS back from the ashes with this new release, "Narben der Zeit". For those who haven't learned German yet, the title translates to English as "Scars of Time" (the original title was "Niemand kennt den Tod", but because of copyright matters, it had to be changed, although an actual song of the album retains that name). This weird name can give us the early idea that the album deals with the situation of the band through all those years in the darkness. But the truth is other: the album goes even further, as it embraces darkness from another angle.

I'll start dealing with the lyrics, since its the easiest part to explain of this album. The songs retain many of the particular writing structures and topics found almost everywhere in gothic metal: despair, darkness, self-consciousness, and a lot more. For example, songs like "Homeless", "Leaving" and "Der tote See" include many conventional gothic topics; but others, mainly "Jane Churm", include many other inspirations, and even the title is a direct reference to an actual ghosts' story. The lyrics overall don't achieve even a quarter of the essence of the album. Then, where is all that explosion of talent and inspiration that kept us waiting for 8 years? In the music, of course!

As a basic advice for all those who haven't listened to EdS before: if you're not into gothic metal (or at least the softer parts of doom metal or the strange stuff of gothic rock) and don't enjoy electronic additions to metal music, you can forget about enjoying the band at all. Electro-gothic metal is the signature of Erben der Schöpfung, as it results in many of the weirdest metal songs you'll ever listen and is so complex to create and perform, that only a few bands all over the world have succeeded on traveling through the sub-subgenre. And in this second attempt, the band goes even further into combining electronic methods of composition, complex mixes and a bunch of the darkest gothic metal moments. What is born from this strange cocktail? Pure originality and talent! Most of the songs rely heavily on their electro-gothic intros and rhythms, but this time the drums are added to create a solid bridge between conventional metal and electronic approaches, as it is shown in the masterpiece of the album, "Krähenauge". Other songs like "Jane Churm" and "Your Lullabies" are good examples of this situation, while the other songs are a little more driven intro electro-gothic field, relying less on the guitars and leaving the synthetizer and keyboards do the job while the vocals complete the harmony like another instrument ("Leaving" is clearly the best example, since Dina Falk's vocals are not the great stuff as Sabine Dünser's used to). Another good situation that fits perfectly with the style is the length of the songs: seven of the ten songs included last for more than 5 minutes, and four of those go over the 6 minutes, enough time to show like an art gallery all the diversity of this release.

I'll give this release a 98 out of 100 since I can understand that the length of the songs can be boring for many people who are not used to electro-metal styles. I personally find this album very complete and solid, as it keeps a nice, slow rhythm that contributes efficiently to the signature of the band. But, as I have said before, if you want to fully understand and enjoy this album as a whole, you must be a gothic metal fan and must always be open to uncommon methods. There's no other way to make it.