The promo for this new act got my attention because it is black metal on Purity Through Fire, and they have been killing it in that arena in 2020 with the likes of Mavorim, Kryptamok , SAD, Slagmark and Noidva. Also, Eisenkult features members of Mavorim as well as Totenwache and Meuchelmord, bands I am unfamiliar with.

So of course, …gedenken wir der Finsternis (We Remember the Darkness)  is killer black metal, but what sort of black metal? Well, it’s by far the most melodic release I have come across from the label. It’s deeply rooted in the early 90s second wave of black metal, and has a wonderfully medieval vibe that fits in with last years Vehemence or this year’s Abduction releases. The guitars are shrill and crystal clear with an audible, steady bass. There is little fluff or pomp. Other than a few almost old-school, 8 bit sounding smile intros and interludes, this is all riffs. Crystaline, tremelo picked riffs that deliver some killer melodic moments both fast and mid paced.

After the intro, “Stahlcross” gets right to it with one of the album’s standouts and then its unfortunately just 4 more actual tracks (an interlude and an outro), of great black metal. There’s “Deprecatio”, another killer, blistering, melodic track. The title track then starts with a slower, mid paced moody track with some more 8 bit ish parts that eventually transform into more high speed melody. “ Auf schwarzen Schwingen” and “Ein endloses Nichts” round things out (other than an outro) with more of the same, sharply harmonic, teutonic sheened black metal. 

At under 30 minutes, and only 5 real songs, (the 8 minutes of soworth of interludes don’t add much) this feel like an EP, but I’ll take a painfully short album of super high quality material over an 1 hour long album that is 50% filler.

[Visit the band's website]

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