Review: Festung Nebelburg-Gabreta Hyle

I have a confession to make. Sometimes I buy albums because they have cool covers. Gabreta Hyle, the only full-length release by the German band Festung Nebelburg has your typical black metal faded picture of a castle album cover, but the burnt-orange color scheme really works for me.  It's what caught my eye when I saw it on the web.  The music?  It's ok.

Similar to Burzum, Festung is the work of one man, Nattulv.  The opening track "Gabreta Hyle" really got my hopes up.  Over top of the main riff there's a lead guitar part that really kicks the song off.  Sadly, the rest of the album has the lead guitar buried in the mix, like a lot of other bands do.  The record never matches the intensity of that opening track.

Festung are a "folk-black metal" act, which mainly shows on "When Autumn Turns to Winter," the only song with English lyrics, the rest being in German.  Which leads me to what I think is Gabreta's biggest failing, the vocals.  Nattulv can do a very nice black metal rasp, but unfortunately about half of the album is sung with clean vocals, with much of that being spoken-word.  Maybe it's because he does it German, but the spoken parts really enter into Spinal Tap territory for me.

Overall I feel that Gabreta Hyle has pretty decent music, but some missteps really drag it down.  I think if Nattulv had stuck with black metal vocals, this would be a solid 3.  As it is, it's a 2.  It's not terrible, but I can't recommend it.

**

Review: Burzum-Filosofem

Burzum's Filosofem was the first black metal album that I ever listened to. It remains one of my favorite black metal releases and one of my favorite albums of all.

I would classify Filosofem as "traditional" black metal. Traditional as in this recording is more in line with Darkthrone's A Blaze in the Northern Sky than something like Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, or even Emperor (Personally, I wouldn't classify Cradle of Filth or even Dimmu Borgir as black metal all, but I know that some people do).

Burzum is the work of Varg Vikernes, who performs all of the music on the "band's" albums. I feel this album really demonstrates his talent, which is being able to craft simple, but powerful riffs and motifs that can be repeated over and over without losing their impact. This may sound strange, but I've always thought this album was really "catchy." It's got hooks. "Dunkelheit" and "Erblicket Die Töchter Des Firmaments" really groove.

Granted, "Rundgang Um Die Transzendentale Säule Der Singularität" might not be for everyone (this is a 25+ minute ambiet track that is almost entirely the same few synth notes repeated over and over) but if listened to as a whole I don't think you will find many black metal albums better than this one. And a big part of that is "Rundgang."

Overall I feel this is one of the best black metal albums of all time. As such, I'd rate it a solid 5 out of 5. Not only is there no weak spots on this album, but I feel that it's a real standout in the genre. Highly recommended.

*****

First Impressions: Cannibal Corpse - Torture

Death metal has never been one of my favorite genres. I listened to Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness back when it was first released and liked it, and Carcass' Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious is one of my favorite albums of any genre, but outside of that the only death metal band that I've listened to regularly is Nile. I own most of their albums but I'm not really sure why.

Back in 2009 I bought Cannibal Corpse's then new album, Evisceration Plague, mainly because it was Cannibal Corpse, legends in their own time. I thought it was good death metal. But since I didn't really care much for death metal... It was ok.

So in 2012 I started this blog, and was sitting at home thinking about what I should write about first. Never would have imagined it would be Cannibal Corpse, but I was sitting here at my computer with Torture playing on my stereo, and Jesus Christ this is good. Favorite tracks so far are Followed Home Then Killed and Sarcophagic Frenzy. Not sure how it compares with their older stuff but this album does a great job of mixing it up with super fast blast-beats and pounding, grinding grooves. That's what I like, this album has riffs that I can not only discern but actually remember. Great stuff, highly recommended.

Beginnings...

I've created this blog to write about music, mostly heavy metal. My inspiration was TheNeedleDrop on Youtube (check him out).

Mainly I will review albums, both old (mostly) and new (sometimes). Also, I want to write up little "histories" of certain bands that I'm most familiar with.

Please enjoy and listen responsibly.