Rana : "Richtfeuer"

This German band hits a sweet place of sonic darkness. The album opens with a crusty pulse before they throw themselves into a malicious black metal blast. The more hard-core stomp this evolves into owes a debt to their crustier side. At eleven minutes they have a great deal of space to cover, so the shift from genre to genre makes sense and is done fluidly. The second song buzzes with more black metal energy. There is a raw feral feel to what they do here that is emotional and explosive in equal measure. The dry mid-range rasp of the vocals remains the same and feels more obligatory on the second song. It does get more deliberate and stomps more into the pulse of their sound, but does not hook you in as tightly as the first song. 

The title track finds the band entering a new realm of melody as they incorporate solemn sung vocals. This is a great example of how things like actual singing, and the use of melodies do not have to compromise the heaviness or intensity of what you do,. in fact, it makes it more effective as there is dynamic contrast. This is a hill I am forever dying on here, and in some ways, it was once the primary inspiration for this blog to find music that did just that. There is more of a bleak longing than a darkness to the mood, here but shades of great make the blackness stand out. 

The last track is almost eighteen minutes long. While some fat could have been trimmed, there are some high lights like the Viking-sounding chant that resonates midway into the song, though the bulk of the song is in a more blasty mcnasty style of black metal.  At nine and a half minutes into the song is gives way to a very minimalist ambiance. It slowly builds back up into the more buzzing tension of black metal. There are some cool moments where I think streamlining things and using the best elements might have played in the song's favor, and still gotten the point across. Aside from that, this album is very rewarding sonically. I will give this one a 9 , as I feel that represents how well they wove these sounds together. I can understand why some might think of this as black gaze, but there is a great deal more going on here.