Menu
Album: Spectral Visions of Mental Warfare Year: 2011. Genre: Depressive / Black Metal Country: Germany Website Partilhar. Spectral Visions of Mental Warfare 8. March of the Tyrants. Para ese gran final llega de primeras la gran banda NARGAROTH, preparen sus cabezas pues volaran con el gran final. 2011 - Spectral Visions of Mental Warfare 2012 - Black Metal Manda Hijos De Puta (Live).
![]()
It took me awhile to appreciate this album, truth be told. After Jahreszeiten, I expected Ash to continue in that direction, specifically with how he constructed the song Herbst. But this is different, and not a beginner's album for the black metal enthusiast. With only 3 tracks actually pertaining to black metal and the rest ambient, at first I felt betrayed by Nargaroth.
I would insomuch go out of my way to flame his act on the airwaves. However, after much time spent away, I picked the album back up and gave it another try, and this time got a completely different feeling from the first time I listened to it.This isn't even really a black metal album for Ash, but rather an experimental album with black metal influences.
It starts out with these beautiful, sweeping violin interludes that, if expecting raw, unadulterated black metal hate, will leave you sorely disappointed. But all in all, a good intro for how he sets up the rest of the album. The next track is black metal, and nicely done too. It has various keys strategically placed to accent the guitars and Ash's vocals are raw and full of power, rather in the vein of classic Burzum, but with its own flair and style.The next several tracks took me awhile to understand, though looking on them now I can appreciate and understand the level of detail they have.
Again, like I said, this is not a beginner's album, specifically during Journey Through My Cosmic Cells The Negation of God. When I first heard it, I instantly pressed the ff button to see what else this album had in store for me. It's almost like trance/ritual music, but not bad. It is definitely worth listening to if you're trying to unwind, as most ambient music is.The next two tracks are beautiful and breathtaking.
A Whisper Underneath the Bark of Old Trees is so full of emotion that when I encountered it this second time, it almost brought me to tears with how stunning and sorrowful it sounded. Raw distortion mixed with a beautifully done riff makes for the perfect mix of German black metal, and Nargaroth nailed it. Even more so with his next track, which is the title of the album.All in all, this album is not to be taken lightly.
It has both good elements and bad, but in my opinion the good completely outweighs and even shatters the bad. I look on in interest for future Nargaroth releases, especially if Ash continues down this path with his contributions to black metal and even more of his dark ambient/trance releases. Anyone even remotely into black metal will have come across Nargaroth at some point on their travels.
Kanwulf’s stories and antics in the past are so infamous these days it’s easy to see why they’re a hugely polarizing band. For a guy whose head is lodged permanently up his own arse, surprisingly he still has a canny knack for creating some fantastic music.
“Jahrezeiten” was a somewhat return to form after the rather mundane previous two efforts. But let’s face it, he’ll never make another “Herbstleyd”, that was an almost genre defining release, and Kanwulf has said as much himself.While “Spectral Visions of a Mental Warfare” is an exceptionally good release, their best in many years in fact, it’s sure to divide fans right across the spectrum. Because this is very, very different to anything Nargaroth have done before. Basically anyone that’s looking for a straight up black metal album will be coming away very disappointed, for “Spectral.” is essentially a bizarre experiment comprised of one small part classic Nargaroth consumed by a wave dreamy ambience fuelled by what almost appears to be the electronic waves of Tangerine Dream and Vangelis of all people. Not your everyday black metal album then eh? Of course this will just further stoke the fires of Kanwulf’s critics, but if you take this not as a black metal album, but as an ambient piece in general, you’ll maybe begin to fully appreciate its majesty.The three ‘Metal’ tracks present here would be loosely tied into the ‘depressive-suicidal’ vein of black metal for want of a comparison but the guitar plays a distinctly reserved role anyway.
Take ‘An Indifferent Cold in the Womb of Eve’, it appears to drift around dejectedly beneath the sea of synths and electronics, playing an effective role in creating an atmosphere of suspended desolation.
Nargaroth was raised in 1989 by Kanwulf as a one man band.In 1991 a demo was recorded entitled 'Orke'.Then 2 years later in 1993 released the very hard to find 'Herbstleyd' demo that was limited to 200 copies.In 1995 Kanwulfs best friend hanged himself, this was a very big shock for him and Nargaroth didn't release any music for about 5 years.Untill 1998 when Steffen of the German No Colours recordlabel contacted him to re-record the 'Herbstleyd' demo and release it as a CD and LP.One year later another album got released, but it was an album old and unreleased recordings entitled 'Amarok'. This album contained a beautifull cover of the Burzum classic 'Black Spell of Destruction' and was also released by No Colours on CD and LP. In the year 2000 Nargaroth release the 'Fuck Off Nowadays Black Metal' demo.Then in 2001 No Colours Records released another milestone in the history of Black Metal. This was the year 'Black Metal ist Krieg' came out, it was Kanwulf's ode to Black Metal.
![]()
A Dedication Monument.2002 was the year the mini CD/LP 'Rasluka Part II' came out.The 'Rasluka Part I' MCD/MLP was supposed to be released as a split LP with Moonblood by Sombre Records, but because Kanwulf had problems with the re-release of Azubham Haani demomaterial by Sombre Records he decided not too release this one on their label but on No Colours. 'Rasluka Part I' and 'Rasluka Part III' are still not released. Yet.The LP version of 'Black metal ist Krieg' came out in 2003, as a gatefold 2-LP with one picture LP.And then after many delays and almost 2 years of waiting Nargaroth's new masterpiece 'Geliebte des Regens' finally was released.
![]() Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2023
Categories |