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Oh, pity this confused, schizophrenic, ugly duckling of a record. What could be a fairly agreeable if inessential genre stopgap is more or less completely undone by overambitiousness without sense, variety without chops. This one-man project plus one – see what I mean about confused? – tries to be black metal ala vintage Satyricon, ambient ala vintage Mortiis (vintage? Who am I kidding?), and a lot of other things. Sadly, it really only works when it’s folk metal ala vintage Týr; verily, the tried and true acoustic and electric guitar interplay on “Heil Asgaard” is superb. Sure, it’s largely experimental, admirably so, and maybe this Russian-German wackjob will eventually combine the spirits of Burzum, Bethlehem and synth-heavy ‘70s krautrock acts successfully, but in the meantime, check out "Zwerge von Midgard" and “This Wonderful World” as garish cautionary tales, two examples of how not to handle ambient genre-splicing. Merely tolerable production, split-the-difference drum programming, perfunctory artwork and a 28-minute running time that feels twice as long, compounded with the grievances already discussed, makes me wonder if this band will leap from loser status into something more esteemed. Time will tell, but my intuition’s already saying “pssst.”
| Tracklist |
| 1. The Awakening of a Northern Wind |
| 2. Zwerge von Midgard (Dovregubbens Hall remix) |
| 3. Der Schicksalsdirigent |
| 4. Heil Asgaard |
| 5. Валькирия (Walkiriya) |
| 6. This Wonderful World |
| 7. Open Your Eyes |
| 8. Constructive Destruction |
| 9. Mach deine Augen auf |
: 27:22
| Buy other Yansen albums |
