Winterland

Winterland is the first demo of the band Imber. As usual, sorry of using this term, but it is simply the case, the total amount of flaws with which the demo is infiltrated with, is of course on a high level. What else can be expected, as it has become en vogue to spread a demo whose quality can merely be described as that of a rehearsal and would hardly stand a comparison with excellent demo releases of bands like Non Serviam, Musta Surma or Devilry? This tendency of deterioration in quality is (also) fostered by the spread/rise of the internet, which is accompanied by the ubiquitous made availability of nowadays music and art. It would indeed be interesting to examine what the driving factors are behind some artist’s approach to spread music these days.

A band has to start somewhere and Imber offers some insights on the first steps they had been taken. Raw and unbalanced does the demo sound, of course it has been recorded without a bass and the left-speaker is dominating over the right one. All these aspects are not surprising and if at least the songs offer some potential, those negative impressions might be plastered to some extent. There are some nice ideas and riffs offered on the demo, yet their presence to too scarce to have a positive impact on it. Furthermore prevent several playing as well as timing errors, the enjoying of this release over a longer period. Yes, nothing of the aspects that are brought forth here are new in particular, especially in hindsight of the extremely poor, but as cult praised releases of the LLN. Nevertheless those times are over and as a small and rather unknown local band from Osnabrück; there is not much of a cult-factor that Imber is able to referring to.

The songs are, despite the amount of flaws that they consist, interesting and it is not entirely annoying to listen to them. Some neat ideas and riffs can be recognized and they are quite interesting. Positive is furthermore that the band is not playing this ‘ultra-monotonous’ music, like a lot of other bands, but instead tries (sic) to use melodies in terms of the song-writing. As stated before the production is one negative aspect and another one is the lack of professionalism. It is their first demo and this is clearly recognizable through the way the songs are written and arranged. Sometimes they sounds a little bit chaotic, but not pathetic in any way. Black Metal with switches in tempo is offered on the demo, also are two different kinds of vocals – a clean and a croaking one – can be perceived here.

A band has to start somewhere and as I already know their second demo, this band has improved their skill and also used a better production for their compositions. This release is offered for free on their homepage and so everyone can download. It is nothing special, but has some nice moments on some songs.