Dekadenz

Urschrei has had quite the troubled past. Formed during the peak of the pagan metal trend, the band started out by jumping head-first into the pagan cliché pool and managed to record one demo before splitting up. Given their efforts came across as the endeavours of a freshly formed student band, it might've been for the better. However, one of the guys didn't want it to end this way and it only took a few months before he resurrected the project as a solo thing of his. Time went by and after gathering a new squad of brave warriors (well... a drummer), it was time to record an album: Dekadenz.

With a change of members came a change in the band's overall approach. The pagan themes took a backseat and social criticism and misanthropy came into the limelight. Therefore the music to be found on the full-length is a lot less happy and folky than it was on the demo. A short "orchestral" intro is preparing the scene for war before "Krankheit Mensch" takes over. After a short build-up with a first burst of screaming guitars and distorted guttural spoken words, the true nature of the release gets uncovered. Melodic black metal is forcing its way into the listener's ear. Sometimes energetic drumming, blast beats and double-bass crossfire is pushing the songs into faster territory, but the majority of the songs are centered around moderate speed and focus more on developing their riffs and melodies into catchy harmonies, anthemic lead work and some solid bangers. They sure are taking a fair bit of influences from bands like Dissection, but also keet some of the melo death ideas of their past, just in a more advanced and thought-out form. In addition to that, they still have a slight pagan metal undertone in their songwriting which is also helping to develop the band's identity. The vocals are taking the same line by mixing fairly clean growls with deep, filthy barking, hateful shrieks and anything in-between the two. Felix is actually doing a great job making the transitions fluid while keeping up a good portion of energy.

The songwriting in the first couple of tracks is absolutely gorgeous. The riffs are catchy and powerful and the songs alternate between crushing stomping, playful solos, really cool melodies and some groovier moments. The song "Blutverbunden" evolves from a slow pagan black track into an energetic battle hymn, "Krankheit Mensch" starts majestic and becomes more and more hateful as it progresses and "Dekadenz" is going the faster, bulldozing route while becoming fairly reflective during its refrain. Sadly, the second half of the record can't quite compete with those bangers and loses a bit of its steam. The ideas incorporated aren't quite as intense anymore, the fast-paced escalation doesn't play to the band's strengths and aren't synergizing with the lengthy melancholic parts. Especially "Welk" with its 12 minutes of slower black metal is having a lot of trouble staying focussed and keeping the tension up. Only the final song can regain some momentum and manages to end the album on a very positive note.

Urschrei's Dekadenz is quite the mixed bag. While none of the songs are actively bad, what starts out with killer songs like the title track can't quite hold up to its own standards as time moves on. Despite the weak second half, the record is still a pretty solid melodic black metal beast that manages the balancing act between crushing fury and melodic extravaganza pretty well. Interesting songwriting and a solid lyrical concept are adding to its appeal while the remains of their pagan past help cementing their musical diversity. While not being the most innovative record you'll ever listen to, for the most part it's still really good at what it does and remains an album I always enjoy coming back to.