Lista de Bandas Black Metal Grabfinsternis Wahn

Here on my desk is a copy of the very first demo by Grabfinsternis. At first I was a bit puzzled with their name, because in English thinking minds, grab means to greedily snatch something up with your hand. But this band is from Germany and everything on this three songer was written in German by vocalist Schynderhannes. The bands name, Grabfinsternis, translates into "grave darkness". Which would seem to imply a theme of dark morbidity. Although this demo was self released, they've got a lot of confidence in it. They are looking for a label that will help the band to develop and promote them with lots of gig dates. But every young band wants to find the perfect label anyway.

Self proclaimed as a Black Metal band, this music sounds more like pagan metal or maybe viking black metal. Songs like Grabfinsternis and Wahn (which translates into delusion) are built around frostbitten tremolo picking. It's pretty fast, but usually not overly catchy. At times these songs sound epic or slightly majestic. Those 2 songs sound comparable to some of the lighter songs done by Vreid or Kampfar. Thron Aus Furcht (which translates into throne of fear) is a faster song with subtle changes in the time signatures. It's the most melodic song on this disc with chilling tremolo picking. This song reminds me of earlier Lucifugum, but not quite as dark as that band.

The vocals of Schynderhannes sound crisp and throaty. He ends some of his lines with a high pitched scream, reminiscent of the vocals of early Destruction, for additional stress. The bass playing sounds somewhat loosey goosey and doesn't add much emphasis to the effect of their songs. The drum performance sounds so-so, though it is adequate. The rhythm section seems subtle as though they don't want it to detract from the guitars or vocals. They need to make better use of these performers to help "grab" the attention of their listeners.

I like Black Metal the same way that I like my coffee, black, real black. With a name that means grave darkness, I would expect their music to sound hideously wicked. This music sounds way to bright to be Black Metal, in my opinion. There is a lot of room for improvement, in the way of transforming their sound into a valid Black Metal sound.

First of all the lackadaisical bass strumming, needs to come alive, while also sounding like a dead angry phantom at the same time. It needs dark and heavy rhythms that sound like the soundtrack to the unearthing of a clandestine graveyard. Adding a gruesome mood, where you can imagine the dried up corpses of murder victims being torn up out of their 4 inch deep graves. But it should not steadily stay dominant, to overpower the 2 guitarists, it should come in from time to time to punctuate the evilest lyrics from the song. The guitar music could also be improved with tremolo melodies that are more mind boggling, like what Lja has done with their guitar music.

The drum playing needs a lot more razzle dazzle in its execution. This music should have a lot of 5 second drum flare ups, that show off catchy percussive melodies, interspersed throughout their albums to stress the musical intensity. The vocals sound good, but the occasional high pitched scream ending of the verses, should be replaced with ominous demon growls at a lower tone. This assessment may seem radical or harsh. But it could mean the difference between stealing the show at gigs or releasing a half dozen more demos. Nevertheless this is a decent first effort from this band. They've got a lot of potential.