If you’re just tuning in, we have two outs, bottom of the ninth inning . . . bases are loaded and the home team is down by three runs . . . shuffling up to the plate with his head down in his typical shy fashion . . . number 666 . . . Dornenreich steps into the batter’s box for Team Prophecy Productions. I tell ya’ Racer, in all my years of watching the game, breathing in its subtle intricacies, I’ve never seen a team come through in the clutch like this Prophecy team, and we have the makings for yet another instant classic . . . a game that will live on forever in the history books of the greatest games ever played! And would you look at that!!! As if on cue, Dornenreich chases a curveball out of the strike zone . . . lined over the left fielders head . . . and all he can do is watch as the ball easily clears the outfield wall and is now a souvenir for the rabid fans who have waited a lifetime for this moment! Do you believe in miracles? I can’t believe my eyes! Racer . . . any comments? You are the color guy after all.
Sorry about that, folks . . . with spring training starting and baseball right around the corner, I couldn’t fight the urge to draw some bizarrely apt correlation between the sport and the amazing work that Prophecy Production consistently releases, and the talents of these guys from Dornenreich have displayed on their latest release entitled Flammentriebe.
Flammentriebe is black metal with an avant tinge, somewhat shoe-gazer, brutal and brackish, beautiful and morose. I first stumbled on Dornenreich on the Prophecy compilation Whom the Moon a Nightsong Sings and found the track to be one of the most compelling, so once the promo for Flammentriebe made its way to me, suffice it to say that I was more than intrigued, maybe even a wee bit on the excited side. By now, you all should know that I love it when musicians push the boundaries of a musical genre, eclipsing any pre-conceived ideas as to what we all had for said genre, permanently stamping their fingerprint to a musical style for all to witness and absorb through the ages. Dornenreich take that full on aggressive black metal style of music and add fantastic elements that make my ears tickle with excitement . . . beautiful and lush acoustic guitar passages, ambient and atmospheric interludes, violins that add more than a delicate texture, acting as one of the key instruments throughout . . . and then there’s a compositional complexity that is like junk shot into my veins to ease my proggy addiction. To draw comparisons with the outside world, let’s take the ambitious musical nature of Opeth, mix it with the pure, unadulterated natural blackened death styling’s of Khold, mix that all with the show-gazing subtleties of label mates Alcest and Les Discrets, and then add a style that can only be Dornenreich’s alone, y’know . . . those intricate little sounds, moods, and tones that can’t be pinned on any other band. I absolutely love this album!
Dornenreich hail from Austria and Flammentriebe is completely written and performed in the bands native tongue, but that shouldn’t be a turn off to anybody. The emotions transcend any language barrier, and in the case of Flammentriebe, actually makes the songs sound that much more important and immediate. The opening track, “Flammenmensch,” is a five minute gem of utter brilliance! After a tentative plucking of an acoustic guitar introduces us to the album, the electric version of the instrument creates that sonic wall that seems to permeate in the black metal world, then we get the blood curdling screams, and a little double bass drum/blastbeat cacophony, and it’s all performed the way I love it . . . with immediacy and honesty, and to keep the wary ear entangled in the web of intrigue, Dornenreich change things up with stunning breaks that allow the song to breath and grow more ominous. Here’s where things get really interesting . . . listen closely to the double, triple, tendon-tearing pick attack of the guitars and you’ll hear the violins in tight accompaniment, adding another texture that I’ve never heard before . . . but listen closely coz’ it can get lost in the mix a bit. Totally bitchin’ effect and for me adds a completely different dimension to the music and what could be.
“Der Wunde Trieb” immediately picks up with the violins leading the way, and then stepping back to let the rest of the band beat us senseless. Then, the violins reappear, adding this great mournful and haunting effect to the blistering black metal tirades. Glorious in its darkness and oppressiveness, “Der Wunde Trieb” is epic metal filled with awesome moments of nuance, hefty technical skill, and emotional depth that will take more than a handful of listening sessions to fully comprehend. By the time you get to “Tief im Land” you should be well primed for one of the most beautifully complex and emotionally savage songs on the album. Again, opening with an acoustic guitar and suddenly bursting with electricity, this song is a full on Odyssian journey of experimentation and musical expression. To listen to the way these guys pull back one instrument to allow another to propel the song and then vice versa, it’s like watching a perfectly choreographed chorus line or, better yet, the inner working of a machine at work . . . all the pieces working together to create motion but all those piece doing their own individual job. “Tief im Land” is a clinic on composition and performance that should be taught at every musical institution. So declareth the Pope. . . so let it be done!
“Wolfpuls” and “Wandel Geschehe” follow suit with more of the aforementioned tendencies, violins working in conjunction with the bombast of the traditional black metal soundings, adding an element of class that one doesn’t find with many black metal acts. “Wolfpuls” is more of a grinding, throbbing, pulsating metallic gem while “Wandel Gerschehe” acts more as a wooden hulled ship cresting wave after roiling wave on the open seas, dipping deep into the valleys of despair, then being propelled to the peak of the wave before crashing down again. Both songs will have you lost within yourself, contemplating the greater meaning of it all and wondering why you hadn’t created such masterful work in your own life. “In Allem Weben” is another sterling example of the musical proficiency that Dornenreich seems to wield within their souls, effortlessly piecing passages together that performed by any other band may never come out sounding half this good. Seamlessly flowing from one expressive passage to another, pummeling the senses with malevolent sounds while incorporating more serene and subtle elements to keep the song from being one dimensional, these guys do a masterful job of challenging the listener, but never over-challenging them.
Flammentriebe is easily at the top of this year’s “Must Have” list. Yeah, it’s early in the year and there’s a great chance it will supplanted by another amazing album, but for the time being, I’m going to spin this gem as much as I possibly can. The layers of sound that make up this album keep me interested and help push my imagination to places I haven’t seen in a long, long time. The album rocks, yet it does so in a very intelligent manner . . . kinda’ like a premeditated murder that stumps the world’s greatest detectives. And yes, to conclude the earlier analogy of this piece, it’s a bases clearing game winning grand slam that leaves Dornenreich being carried off on the shoulders of his team mates to the cheers of thousands. Game ball should go to Prophecy for recognizing the raw talents of this band and getting them prepped for the big leagues!
Pope