Erløsung

The days have become colder and darker, and a very strange year is heading towards its final weeks. This is the perfect time for some pitch black music as a soundtrack to the current situation, and the German band Streams of Blood is delivering exactly that. I have been a big fan of their previous album from 2017, “Allgegenwärtig”, and it has been a great surprise when I saw their newest full length “Erløsung” pop up. This is 44 minutes of raw power, combined with outstanding songwriting and a thick and frosty atmosphere, sending the listener straight into the pits of hell.

The two lads are not interested in reinventing the genre by any means, but in seeking simply to present their own version of it, to bring the glory of the past days into the present, so as to make everything old new again. And while I am as keen as the next man to see bands continue to push forwards and progress, sometimes the best way to do that, the best way to express your creativity is to look to and learn from the past. There are enough punishing blast-beats and howling vocals to be found here to satisfy even the most jaded of blackened souls – but the album’s template offers more than a bunch of standard accords randomly put together.

The mix of heaving rhythm guitars and spiraling lead melodies, all underpinned by some frantic, almost feverish, drum work and topped off with some brilliantly raw and emotive vocals, makes this album a monolithic slab of raucous blackened rebellion, replete with an aura of immersive atmosphere, lending the music an epic, empowering vibe. On the one hand this is pure annihilation and savagery for fans of old school black metal, but on the other hand the band manage to also create more fragile moments, which are used to create certain pictures of loneliness and despair in the listener’s mind.

This might be the sort of album which appears simple on the surface, but which constantly gives you some details to discover with each consecutive listen. Most tracks are sinuous and scintillating, being more complex than one might expect after having listened to the crushing rhythms and the furious tremolo runs for the first time. “Erløsung” is heavy in both atmosphere and melody, which hearken back all the way to the early days of the genre, without sounding antiquated. Songs like “Nychts” offer some of the most captivating guitar harmonies you are going to find this year.

So what else is left to say? The vocals are another asset, with the burbling and evil approach being an additional unique selling point for Streams of Blood. The production is pretty much flawless again, clear, powerful and raw at the same time. This is exactly how such music needs to sound in the year 2020. It is really difficult for me to find something to criticize here, something I do not like about this release. The only thing I could come up with when I am forced to nitpick is that most of the stuff you are going to hear has been done in the past in a similar way, but for me personally this is nothing materially negative. The two gentlemen have been around for a while in the scene, so they have in some way earned the right to produce this kind of throw-back music. In case you are searching for a ripping piece of black metal look no further and make sure to get of copy of this album.