(Prophecy Productions) Total Time: 42:58
It's been a while since the last DORNENREICH release - 5 years to be exact. Now, I've been hearing about this band for a quite some time now, but, somehow, they always managed to escape me. "Hexenwind" thus represents my first encounter with the DORNENREICH sound.
"Hexenwind" sounds very much like a post apocalyptic folk album, that's presented by a black metal band. Think of a marriage between EMPYRIUM and a folky DEATH IN JUNE, with hints of SOL INVICTUS and OF THE WAND AND THE MOON. DORNENREICH give us an almost acoustic album, with Spanish guitar influences, that instead of the industrial sickness or claustrophobic emptiness that's usually present on the apocalyptic folk releases, we get a thin and very subtle black metal ferocity and gothic beauty. DORNENREICH seem to be influenced by the glorious school of Austrian black metal experimentalism (KOROVA, ANGIZIA (my editor will kill me for calling ANGIZIA black metal), SUMMONING, etc.) and try to impose its ambience on the neo-folk scene. The result is highly successful. The album radiates an image of melancholic solitude in the middle of a forest. Acoustic guitars take the lead role here, and are accompanied by the occasional simple drum rhythms, whispers and winds. This is all toped of with clean melodic vocals as well as very few black metal screams and distorted guitars. Majestic, epic and beautiful, the compositions are of a high quality and do not dissapoint.
Dream metallers should definitely invest in "Hexenwind".
