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Finsterforst has always been a love or hate band for me, as I really dig their first album Weltenkraft but that was actually it, until this came along. Their epicness and power are lasting adjectives since the beginning, but there was definitely a piece of the puzzle missing before Zerfall. The 80-minute long opus, divided by only five songs, is a masterful journey to the dark roads of destruction and cold, gloomy forests which could actually rival some of their peers like Moonsorrow, Ensiferum or Equilibrium.

The deepness of the songwriting, the carefully crafted instrumental and the characteristic choirs all mix together in what I easily consider the Germans' best work to date. Brutally dark efforts such as "Fluch des Seins" and a real masterpiece in the titanic closer "Ecce Homo" deliver what these guys were eagerly trying to achieve since the band's inception and just fell short in one way or the other. Every single note is perfectly inserted, every atmospheric passage meaningful, every riff with a purpose. Zerfall is as big and breathtaking as we can expect from an epic folk metal album, and it will most likely be remembered for years to come; easily one of the best albums of the year so far.