Weltenbrand

Weltenbrand is the third release of the Thuringian formation which was founded in 1999. They managed to get a big fanbase with their first two records, although those were flawed compared to Weltenbrand.

The intro called Offenbarung starts with sounds of water and some light guitar melodies. Soon afterwards, the sounds of water are replaced with flutes and everything gets accompanied with synthesizer sounds. The spotlight should be set on the spoken vocals, which are getting harsher towards the end. The whole song is fluently transisted into the second one Weltenbrand. This song is kept in mid-tempo and convinces through well-engineered melodies and slowly growled passages. The beloved clean vocals are well dosed and therefore supporting the epicness of the song. The keyboard starts quite ostensible which can be annoying.

The third song called Einsam is the first one, in which you might think “well, I have heard that before”, as structure and orchestration are quite similiar to Weltenbrand. Of course, this is not the main feeling you will have while listening throug the record, as there is enough variation, although the other songs have some flaws, too.

Thrusenhain is one of the songs, that is completely different in terms of orchestration and structure, but as mentioned before there are also some flaws. The main theme of the song really sounds like Nightwish, which is sad. Apart from this, the song is full of variation as it ranges from slow through nearly high-tempo passages and combines growls and clean vocals. There are some spoken passages as well and what is special about them, is that they are spoken by a child. The last third of the song contains a radical change, as the song is quite trashy then.

The whole record is quite epic, but it has to be mentioned that it is true epicness, not this “epic” you may know from bands like Turisas. The majority of songs is done in mid-tempo and they are full of synthesizer sounds and really beautiful guitar melodies. The production is crystal clear and full of power, which is really great as the production on their first two records was not that good.

On the other hand, it has to be mentioned that the record does not really contain a real highlight, as all the songs are on an equal level and sometimes they are quite similiar as well. The only song that really stands out may be the “outro” Die Banner hoch der Nacht entgegen as it does not utilize any guitars and the synthesizer sounds are taking the leading role. This is at one and the same time the reason why the song is a good outro, but weak as a song itself.

Conclusion:

Weltenbrand is a solid piece of art which stands above the mishmash. On the other hand it does not achieve to set an example, since all of the songs are really audible more than once, but the record lacks a masterpiece.
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nilgoun / http://threnodies.com