Sehnsuchts Wogen
Conceptual records are really fun and it absolutely doesn’t matter what they are about, as you can normally hear how much work the musicians had in composing the record. The latest record of träumen von aurora is a post-metal (respectively post-black metal) one and therefore quite depressive/sad, but still worth listening?
This record is their third release, but the first one that is released with the support of a label. This eight track records theme is about a break-up and tries to show the “overcoming of the associated longing for the past”. This is seperated into two parts while the tracks 1 to 5 resemble one part, the rest of the tracks the second one. The first part is about the feelings right before and right after the break-up, while the second one is the retrospective view about one year later. As you might have guessed, the two parts have (at least a little) different atmospheres.
Both parts have the same structural elements in common, which means, that the band simply relies on the well-trodden paths of post-rock/post-black metal. There are dreamy guitar leads, aggressive tremolo picked riffs, moaning spoken/clear sung passages as well as angry and desperate screams. All different parts are accompanied by the corresponding drum patterns, so that the slower, rocking passages feature slower drums while the tremolo picked ones feature quite fast metal drum beats. Sometimes there are even some disharmonics!The music can be described as a mixture of better known post-black metal bands, as at least the drum set reminds me of Agrypnie, but there are some huge portions of Lantlôs and Alcest as well. The clear spoken passages even remind me of some gothic bands as well … quite distracting.
The combination of these elements isn’t risky or anything, they simple followed the established formula for post-rock/metal songs without any sovereignty. Sovereignty isn’t the only thing that this record lacks, as you will futilely wait for some real highlights, something that sticks in your head for quite some time, anything that could be called a real arc of suspense. If you can see over this two greater facts, the record will offer some quite solid compositions. The record is varied, as the orchestration between the two great thematic passages is different. The first one features more depressive melodies while the second one is a bit optimistic. Nevertheless, the aforementioned flaws are the reason, why this record can’t exceed the status of an “average” entertainment, as the taints prevail the good ideas (which in fact are there!).
There are two other big problems, but compared to the aforementioned objective flaws, they highly depend on your taste. The vocals are quite demanding and the lead-guitar is really present while playing the melodies (if the lead guitar is calm, a “piano” is playing the same melodies, so no rest). If you love highly melodious songs, this won’t be a problem for you, but it can get quite annoying. The vocals are quite shriek at times and especially the shouted passages are quite monotonous which can be really annoying as well. The sad thing is, that both can be traced back to the production, which is quite sterile and although the previous release was quite dull, it had the better sound (as the two problems weren’t any back then).
Conclusion:
Sehnsuchts Wogen can’t really convince me, which is quite sad as I really liked their previous release nie ist alles schon gesagt. The sterile production causes both vocals and lead guitar to become quite annoying with the course of time as they are way to present compared to their last release. The tracks are, nevertheless, quite solid although they just follow the established formula for post-metal songs. Let’s just hope that they follow the good ideas that shined through, add enough sovereignty and then publish a better record!
Rating: 65/100
Date of release: June, 1st 2012
Tracklist:
01. insomnia 5:21
02. parfüm 7:33
03. welknis 4:42
04. neontot 4:23
05. flucht 3:19
06. firn 6:01
07. reflektionen 12:10
08. nie ist alles schon gesagt (Bonus) 4:34
