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From the fertile Aachen region in Germany, we have another one-man, slightly avantgarde Black metal project on the Van label. The name of this act put me off, as it looked like some kind of punk thing, but the pedigree forces me to take this seriously. Technically Black Metal in general shape, this is very offbeat, with no blasting or screeching, instead dark, twisted riffing backed by charismatic vocals that remind me of Attila Csihar or Big Boss. In fact, the wide-ranging songwriting and the varied vocal approach reminds me quite a bit of later Root material.

That does not mean this is quite a masterwork as the Root comparison would tend to imply. I like this quite well, and the inventive songwriting keeps it interesting. But the songwriting is not as big as the ambition that drives it, and the sound is often so dedicated to being experimental that it loses track of the overall composition. There are some great parts to this album, but not really any great songs. There is also quite a bit of post-rock influence at work, and that has limited appeal to me. When this album gets heavy the riffs are gold, but then it will veer off into some dippy-sounding keys or a long strummy acoustic bit and lose interest. In sum, this is an album bursting with talent and ambition that loses coherency and becomes interesting rather than gripping.