Following tradition, but pursuing their own voice and a very coherent style of their own in the process – that will certainly remind the more attentive listeners of early Burzum, and a little bit of Emperor and Darkthrone – Ulfsdalir does a very decent work on Abendrot, despite the album, with only five tracks, ends up being too short.
Although deeply influenced by a several famous early black metal bands, with a lack of innovation, Abendrot manages to be almost pure Germanic black metal, a genre that has formally developed its own standards by its own right, although it has always been influenced by the early Norwegian black metal scene. Lucid, vivid, sinister and pure, this album really has all in its power to be considered a highlight of the genre, and a great ubiquitous reference on the power and the perpetual purity of black metal.
With more melancholic passages, and a very fulfilling sense of poetic comprehension over the nothingness that inhabits the human soul, Abendrot achieves a luminous excellence that – although it does not resonates over the entire album, it is there, for you to be captured and evaluated by it. Despite some greatness, it is not a perfect album, and you have to be patient in certain parts, while the truth of the genre and the beauty of sincerely poetic harmonies sleep in your soul, from track to track.
With an interesting degree of morbidity, that really understands everything upon which the genre is founded, what lacks in Abendrot is a more aggressive originality. While this album is really a competent melancholic black metal album, you will hardly feel satisfied, after listening to the whole record. While it does not sound deeply generic, on the other hand, it really lacks strength, aggression and sincerity, as the album does sound superficial some times.
Don’t get me wrong. Abendrot is a good album, indeed, but has to achieve way more than what you find on this record, to become powerful. Suffering from a little monotony in some passages, Ulfsdalir has to find a more passionate road in their journey, to encapsulate a vigorous enthusiasm into their sound, to leave their audience more compromised.
Wagner