2. Mit jedem Abschied wird Erinnerung geboren
3. Raserei des Meeres
4. Dernière
5. My Eternal Grave
6. Herbstehnsucht
7. Saturnnebel
8. Dernière (Instrumental Version)
Herbstsehnsucht is the debut album of Germany's own, Winterblood. Sure when you think of the name Winterblood, you are probably thinking some kind of tr00 or kvlt black metal fix. Well, the fact is Winterblood is beyond that. Winterblood brings forth a synthesis of raw-ish old school black metal and infuses it with such elements of depressive black metal, doom, avantgarde-ism, and more. With an interesting array of gloomy elements, the band sets its journey high in the cold mountains of the Fimbulwinter season unleashing an avalanche of northern arctic black metal across the lands of desolation.
Herbstehnsucht includes 8 wondrous tracked filled with coldness, aggression, and melody. That's around 59 minutes of intense black metal metal with a touch of somber moments to mend thy blackened soul. Also embedded with the music is the addition of male operatic vocals (tenor and baritone) on some of tracks. My Eternal Grave along with a few other tracks showcase the importance and beauty of this style. Other vox styles include black metal vox(DSBM inspired), clean vox, whispers, chants, and deathy grunts. One problem that I did encounter is that some of the clean vocals sound a bit off and dull but it doesn't hurt to try and experiment with it. The musicianship is pretty top notch in my opinion. Tracks vary from fast to slow and variate in nice tempo changes. There are a few acoustic/clean guitar passages throughout the album which will just put you at ease for a bit, Listen to the title track, Herbstehnsucht, and you shall see what I mean. That track is a perfect cross of acoustic and black metal. Of course the show stealer are the cold, melodic riffs. They are pretty aggressive and constantly twisting the sound from your ears in many directions. The band sure mixes power creating a majestic strum of dark sounds thus unveiling chaos. Each track is unique in its own way blending and hinting a mix of many unique elements, mainly a post black outcome but in a more old school fashion rather than your typical shoe-gazey vibe that bands seem to be going for these days. I really do love that this band is not afraid to incorporate many experimenations to their sound. I know that sounds like the album is all over the place but it really is not. It's the melodic black metal that is the soul as it holds the music in place. It's just the avantgarde, doom, acoustic, and ambient auras that grab a hold of it from time to time unleashing a myriad of emotions. Tracks Mit jedem Abschied wird Erinnerung geboren, My Eternal Grave, Herbstehnsucht, and Saturnnebel are the more memorable and powerful tracks in my opinion, but that is not to say the other tracks don't do anything because they do in their own sort of way.
So all in all, Herbstsehnsucht prevails. It is a nice change for bands to alter the style up a bit and I believe Winterblood have done a good job at that. Now, the question is.. where does the band go from here? Well that is a good question. Perhaps we will have an answer soon. I do know that the band has a split with Endlos coming up pretty soon so I am looking forward to that if it comes my way. Nevertheless, this was an interesting debut by Winterblood. Fans who crave or enjoy depressive black metal and don't mind a few Jekyll and Hyde moments should certainly take this album into consideration.
Rating:4/5
Review by Freddy Garcia
