Einsiedler

A band whose output I probably should be paying more attention to is the long-running Dutch ambient black metal act Urfaust who have built up a healthy-looking discography over the past decade though close inspection reveals most releases are splits and EPs, the latter of which some may be albums in disguise. "Einsiedler" is as good a place to start with as any, as this is a deeply dramatic and almost operatic work, very unlike most arty and experimental BM where I hang out whenever my cool hipster reputation around this place is rapidly fading away. For want of a better category, "Einsiedler" is presented as an EP though if it had been originally released on vinyl it might have been considered a single.

The first song presents as if it were a chapter in an on-going saga, the full details of the preceding chapters as yet unrealised on other Urfaust recordings, not that the band is under any obligation to its fans to present the entire epic. "IX - Der Einsiedler" ("der Einsiedler" meaning "the hermit" or "the recluse" in English) could be interpreted as a loner's spiritual awakening, a cry of angst and hopelessness, or a mind deteriorating into madness and screaming for help, or even as a combination of these scenarios. However listeners choose to hear this song, it is bleak and tortured, filled with heart-rending pain. Repetitive and apathetic drumming, high-pitched blank keyboards and minimal tremolo guitar set the scene in which the harsh vocals scream and croon inner suffering and emotional torment. Voice often soars to majestic heights, to be brought down by animal screeches of pain. Most of the time the instruments keep to their cycle of keening sound as if in sympathy with the vocalist's wretchedness though you can't help but feel this apparent empathy is part of the endless punishment. A lone synth hops out onto a little deranged journey, perhaps promising relief but leading us astray instead in the darkness. The painful emotion is unbearable and you wonder that the vocalist can keep it up for 12 minutes without collapsing.

"Verderber" ("destroyer" or "corrupter" in English) is equally dark and bleak but with a sharper and jagged guitar-dominated sound suggesting potential blood-red suicide and violence that could erupt suddenly any time, with devastating and brutal results. Again this is a very repetitive track but in contrast to its longer partner, the instruments are stripped back to time-keeping drums and solo lead guitar with feedback, revealing a stark landscape of life-and-death choices to be made, from which there's no escape or release. Hiding and procrastinating only delay the inevitable in a minimally styled track that best exemplifies the "less is more" cliche and where atmosphere reigns supreme.

Both tracks are very good on their own but together they're an uneven unit as the first song is almost twice the length of the second. Probably Urfaust felt that the second song says twice as much as the first in its bare-bones, teeth-bared arrangement - but in that case, "Verderber" still merits a longer treatment and development. The repetition could have led to an intense climax that makes the entire piece (and the whole recording) worth the listener's time to sit through, however good the music is. Plus in being of more or less equal length, the songs would complement each other and form a basis for a possible concept album.