(No Colours Records)

Release Date: 2009
Origin: Germany

Nargaroth is a very special band from East Germany. Its only permanent member and its mastermind is Kanwulf, who formed the band around 1996. During all these years, several guest members participated in Nargaroth and there is also a live line-up for the band. Kanwulf doesn’t seem to use this name anymore so he is now known as Ash. He has already released 5 full-length albums, as well as many EPs and splits. There are two basic different musical paths he follows in his albums so far: some of them show a more raw old school black metal sound, while others have a more melodic, melancholic approach, which I definitely prefer.

“Jahreszeiten” is Nargaroth’s sixth album and luckily it belongs to the more melodic works of the band. In my opinion it’s their best effort since “Geliebte des Regens” in 2003. There is an intro and four songs in this album, each one named after one of the year’s seasons, as the title implies. Despite the name, they don’t refer to the seasons, but they deal with love and the different emotions developed in a relationship: it all begins very promising like spring, then comes the warmth of summer, later the first clouds of autumn and finally the coldness and even the hatred of winter. It is a very interesting and original concept for sure! I should mention here that all lyrics are in German. The four songs are very long, lasting from 10 up to 22 minutes each, so the album is 66 minutes in total!

The music now, is cold, raw, misanthropic, yet melodic black metal. Nargaroth’s brilliant melancholic riffing is back, offering us very emotional music. Guitars have the primary role here and synths are simply used  in the background, adding a melodic warmth in the sound. The production is perfect for this genre and Kanwulf’s vocals are simply amazing. His growls are very expressive and overflowing with emotion, while he even uses some clean, almost mourning vocals that fit perfectly with the concept of the album! The music in “Jahreszeiten” evolves, as the seasons of “love” are passing by… “Frühling” begins somehow happier, “Sommer” follows with a more triumphant mood and then come “Herbst” the bigger and my favorite song, where melancholy dominates everything. Closing the circle comes “Winter”, the faster and more hateful song of the album!

Nargaroth are back for good with “Jahreszeiten” and I recommend it to all fans of this genre. The album is released once again by No Colours Records and there is also a limited to 1000 copies A5 digipak with the band’s logo embossed, as well as a double vinyl edition. You can visit their official page for more information, as well as English translations of the lyrics and the concept of the album: http://www.nargaroth.de

dimiarch