Kalter Zeiten Ewigkeit

I’m growing ever so tired of the depressive black metal style; I find most acts to just present repetitive riffing of a low class, supposedly atmospheric, howling like an adolescent boy getting his wiener stuck in his zipper, and doing so over the most boring drumming possible. I can hardly stand it anymore (especially all those lame one-man acts trying to mimic Burzum). So when Zornestrieb’s debut demo comes presented as ‘cold black metal with negative emotions’ I get a little standoff-ish, and when the first four minutes of Verwelktheit is just simple guitar tinkering I get even more judgmental, and start to fear the worst.

Luckily this isn’t as mundane as I feared. First off the tempo is not that of two beats a minute, the vocals aren’t annoying howls and the riffing’s not so repetitive you wanna kill yourself (and not because the music’s depressive, but because it’s so excruciatingly boring). Kalter zeiten ewigkeit comes off more as a very melodic type of black metal that’s focused on projecting a cold atmosphere, creating the negative atmosphere from that coldness. The riffing’s not exactly mind-blowing, and Vor eises zeit becomes a wee bit too long when the first four and a half minutes is just the same riffs, lines and beats over and over again. But once the track gets going it takes on a very Scandinavian approach, getting me thinking of some of the more obscure acts from the mid-nineties. And they mix that Vargavinter (with way less speed) style with the more emotional and atmospheric side of black metal, where Ancient Wisdom comes to mind. Add to that old school in the vein of earlier Blodsrit and you’ve got yourself a fairly decent idea of how I interpret Zornestrieb’s sound.

The production leaves it kind of damp, with the vocals emerging from a depth rather than taking the forefront of their tunes. It’s a sort of classic black metal shriek, but with a slightly raspier tone at times. Since the tempo of the drumming varies from slow, to accompany the very melodic and emotional part of the music, to a little faster paced, it offers some variation within the otherwise relatively repetitive tunes. The repetitiveness adds to the atmosphere here, and stops short of being mind-numbingly boring, which is where many other acts falter. It’s very melodic and cold, and I definitely enjoy the sampled wind blowing during Verwelktheit, giving it an eerie touch. But it still doesn’t really make an impact on me, I just don’t feel it. It’s in no way bad, just not for me…

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net