Reich der Schatten

I really like this album. The songs, the sound, the playing, the production, and the packaging is especially coo!, but it utterly lacks in any sense of originality. I was shuddering with glee upon hearing the authentic-sounding creepy pipe organ of the intro "Cemetary Gates". I wanted to hear an entire album of such funerary music; very well composed and foreshadowing the noxious unpleasantness to follow. However, though effective, this very track sums up the album. "Cemetary Gates"? Very apt, but not even slightly novel. And that is how the album continues....everything about it says black metal in very definite, well-done fashion, and spurns any attempt at originality. High point amongst the songs is #6, "Seuchengott", with it's cool riffs and vocals prior to an abrupt change into an off-kilter funeral march bridge that is really unexpected. A lot of interest and action in this song particularly. The nadir of the album, though it acts as album-closer, is "To Eternity", which is a monotonous exercise which is thankfully short. Perhaps that song actually works in the context of an outro. The other songs are not exactly stunning, but not exactly paint-by-numbers. Just plain good black metal, with varied tempo; the bulk of said tempo being fast-paced. Some songs have a plethora of riffs, others just a few, but nothing ever gets tiresomely drawn out, as many bands are guilty of!

The sound on here is elevated above necro, but does not approach mainstream production values. The guitar is suitably ripping, neither too piercingly trebly or filthily dirty; it sounds "organic", in that it doesn't have that annoying pro-tools factory sound. Everything else is in it's proper place/sound.....the drums are rather furious and well executed, and there is even a hint of audible bass. The vocals are mid-range, typical black metal style, with a bit of croaking gurgle to put them on the plus-side of generic, as well as a satisfying variation from time to time. They are perfectly in the mix, as well as everything else. This was done by people who have recorded AND listened to black metal before!

What is very impressive about this release is the packaging, and I don't even have the fabled "inverted cross foldout" version! The cover-art serves to convey a sense of old-world menace and mysticism, as well as using red to incite shades of violence and hellfire. In keeping with the name, the disc itself has a pleasing circle of rats on display...they frolic round and round in your cd player, happily spreading the plague! There is also a nice quote from "Nosferatu" inside the back tray, and some gruesomely morbid artwork diplayed in the booklet. Er, the photos of certain band members......let's not mention those!

Everything about this album screams old-fashioned black metal, from a time when the feeling passed from Bathory to Mayhem, with a sound that is equal parts "Under the Sign of the Black Mark", "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas", and "Sentence of Death"(YES!!!!). I'd really like to give this a higher mark, but it will no doubt sound stale to many listeners, as I'm sure it will to myself over the next year or so with repeated listens. But if you revel in good ol' non-challenging black metal of ancient flavour, Pestnebel is for you!