This edition of our Brieviews is a special one to me as it is about one of my favorite labels – Eisenwald Tonschmiede from Thuringia, Germany. They specialize in everything black metal and have already brought us some awesome releases this year – Ashtar, Fluisteraars, Fellwarden. They have collaborations with two of Europe’s best black metal collectives, the Haeresis Noviomagi label for which they produce the vinyls and the Helvetic Underground Committee (expect a bigger article on that group of aficionados soon) bringing some of Switzerland’s bleakest records to date. If you combine all these releases plus some re-releases of Mosaic, Germany’s finest medieval black metal artist, you see that their demands for a release are not simply pure black metal fury but that the act fits to the roster, it must share something with all the others and that – in my mind is a very naturalistic approach to music, with traditional folk-segments and references to nature as a sacred entity. These elements may vary in depth and level of elaboration and prominence on all of the records but they are certainly noticeable.
Today I want to focus on some of their very last releases to further showcase the variety of this label. You can find all of their releases in their webstore at http://www.eisenton.de.
Today I want to focus on some of their very last releases to further showcase the variety of this label. You can find all of their releases in their webstore at http://www.eisenton.de.
Svabhavat – Black Mirror Reflection
black metal
Eisenwald is a label specialized in everything black metal and its niches. With UADA they have a kind of melodious, near-pop variant of it, with Mosaic they serve a kind of folkloristic version of it and with one their latest releases, Svabhavat’s debut they seem to pay respect to the beginnings of the bleakest and darkest version of black metal. “Black Mirror Reflection” is black metal in the pure vein of Darkthrone or Mayhem. Even though they come from the Pacific Northwest (like their labelmates UADA), there is none of the typical elegiac elegance of many of the black metal bands from that region, think of Mizmor or Hell. The duo plays what they call Ritualistic Black Metal and truly this can be the soundtrack to the exorcism of just about anybody. They often start their songs with very short highly interesting sound ideas, but then blast them away with bloodthirsty fervor not too often found on Eisenwald’s roster, maybe Death.Void.Terror being the only similar artist. This here is a ritual but not in the meaning that only the music is important, here we do not witness shamans singing to a blood-red moon, but more two Luciferian monks screaming their lungs out in the depths of a church where they are igniting the candles. Sometimes they are able to very effectively hide their songwriting skills behind a veil of thunder, for example in “Abhicaara” where the song breaks down into an atmospheric middle but when the riffs collide again they do not lead to another hellish fire but rather to a more re-defined, slowed down ending. If the band follows the latter path a bit more – like they show on the title track at the end – then we are on to something great here, because the two definitely know how to raise hell, they only need to show that there ritual doesn’t start with blood and gore but also with igniting the candles and slowly giving it the pauses it needs for the incantations to work its magic. A very promising addition for Eisenwald.
UADA – Djinn
black metal
When talking about Eisenwald we should not forget that UADA released their latest opus magnum “Djinn” at the end of September. A few months years ago, one of Germany’s most important political magazines “Der Spiegel” (similar to TIME or NEWSWEEK in the US) published an article about UADA (Latin for ‘the haunted’) and it surprised me to see an article about one of my favorite genres in there. Their claim was that black metal had turned into some kind of hipster thing with some bands like Deafheaven and UADA leading the way for those who need to be able to say “Oh, so you like Flaming Lips? Well, if you need to, I always find it to poppy, for me it needs to be bleak and dark, so my taste is much more refined than yours!” Snobs at their worst, right? By now they have turned their back on the genre again and the loners are together again without them. Some might find that disappointing, others don’t, the author figures himself somewhere in the middle. I can understand the awesome-ness of the success bands like those mentioned have had because that also means that they were able to benefit from it in some way. Probably not monetary but maybe it made it easier for them to travel the world and that might be the biggest thing for them anyway.
“Djinn” has everything it needs to be one of the most successful black metal albums of 2020 – hell, it even deserves to be! It’s moving and melodious, it bellows and bites, it shows rage and refined songwriting skills with a knack for transporting Thin Lizzy into the genre without tuning it too low but with just the right amount of dirt and grid. UADA and its mastermind Jake Superchi show an anthemic version of black metal that no one has waited for, but that no one can turn its back on either. If you can do that while listening to the title track or to “Forestless”, tell me how, as I would like to get those earworms out of my head.
“Djinn” has everything it needs to be one of the most successful black metal albums of 2020 – hell, it even deserves to be! It’s moving and melodious, it bellows and bites, it shows rage and refined songwriting skills with a knack for transporting Thin Lizzy into the genre without tuning it too low but with just the right amount of dirt and grid. UADA and its mastermind Jake Superchi show an anthemic version of black metal that no one has waited for, but that no one can turn its back on either. If you can do that while listening to the title track or to “Forestless”, tell me how, as I would like to get those earworms out of my head.
Osi and the Jupiter – Appalachia
folk / ambient
And to round out this trio of awesome Eisenwald releases throughout the last couple of months, we must have a look at this wonderful release by my favorite American Ambient Folk duo, Osi and the Jupiter. Their new EP “Appalachia” is a wonderful supplement to an already brilliant body of work as these 21 minutes are literally wonderful and at first glance do not fit the Eisenwald roster at all. However, bear in mind that Eisenwald also releases Mosaic and its folk tales. The Ohio duo here uses their home Appalachia in Eastern Ohio as inspiration and in some way also as their musical mindmap. The songs are windy, they are sparsely instrumented with not more than some strings, a some acoustic guitar lines and sometimes something that sounds like a huge organ, but which actually is Sean’s synth that’s also used for the few drones. The central piece on “Appalachia” is certainly the final track “The Binding Will of Mountains” with its nearly 13 minutes resembling the slow approach towards the Appalachian mountains and its sometimes sunny, oftentimes dark peaks. The forests in this region of the second-highest mountain ridge in North America also surely gave the guys some inspiration. Sean strums his guitar as gentle as Kakophonix plays his cello. That the two have a very deep connection is obvious when Kakophonix seldom but highly effectively joins Sean in his vocals; when both sing together there is some Cantrell-Staley magic going on, even though their voices sound nothing like the Seattle superstars, it is more their connection that is so strong and moving. When the final track opens up for its second half there is this short, short pause as if the pioneers are preparing for their final move up the mountain and against the wind that is so cold against their cheeks.
When we look at all these releases it becomes obvious that Eisenwald is not interested in releasing big-selling records, most of their records are not putting up numbers big enough to make a living off it. But their roster and its songs show a label doing it for the soul, their own and their audience’s. They all buy into the idea that music is a part of nature and our environment and that we should therefore treat it with respect and care. We shall not simply rage over it, but we should it respect it – just like we should respect people of any belief system and personality. Basically its orientation is nothing short of the Golden Rule – treat everyone like you want to be treated by everyone. Oh, by the way – did I mention that they also just simply release some of the finest records lately?
Thorsten
Thorsten
