Weltfeind is a new label (actually it started in 2013), with three releases until now. It was founded by D., the guy who runs the superb Martial Industrial-label Castellum Stoufenburc as well. Weltfeind was created to release material that did not quite fit to Castellum Stoufenburc’s roster, and the focus is to promote ‘Depressive Underground Music’; the sad and desperate identity of the acts on Weltfeind are somewhat oppositional to the heroic pride of Castellum Stoufenburc’s projects.
Anyway, the three Weltfeind-releases will be reviewed, evidently (as well as some new material from D.’s original label Castellum Stoufenburc), in the next days / weeks / centuries.
The first signing is a Russian solo-outfit by another D., the same person who has Fall To November Sky as project. With Hypnotic Depression, Lost In The Gray Days bring a first chapter in, what I hope, a bright (and hopefully also utterly dark and depressed / depressing / depressive) future. This demonstrational recording was initially digitally released, and is now available as well on CD, in a truly splendid edition: sober yet beautiful. Damn, the artwork and the soberness alone are perfectly fitting to the musical excellence – a pure expression of, indeed, ‘Depressive Underground Music’. It was done by Cold Sun Arts, which provides most of the artistic/visual part for both Castellum Stoufenburc and Weltfeind.
Hypnotic Depression consists of six compositions, which have a total running time of fifty minutes. The material opens with the title track, which starts very sober and integer: singing birds and wind, after about one minute joined by a sad acoustic guitar and floating synths lines at the back ground. Then, somewhat later, you hear very distant voices, little hysterical, wretched, painful screams from far away. Those vocals are sort of characterising Lost In The Gray Days. As from half of this opening song, the tempo accelerates a little, with another acoustic melody, which is less sober and simplistic, but at least as bleak, and with some modest percussion support. Then comes Suicidal Convulsions, clocking nearly ten minutes. What this track stands for, is an extremely grim and dark, melodic and atmospheric kind of slow-paced Black Metal with quite some structural variety, despite the huge repetitiveness. Besides the electric guitars and bass, and drum (programming?), there are some remarkable additions, like those mournful screams (speechless), something that sounds like a xylophone (cf. Burzum’s Dunkelheit or Lustre, if you know what I mean), strangely dissonant leads and eerie keyboard support. With Never Feel This Life Again, the oldest works of Burzum come to mind again, as well as the likes of Leviathan, Scaphandre, Inexistenz, Krigsgrav, Mortualia or Misery. This song is enormously monotonous / repetitive in riffing (which is NOT a bad thing at all when it comes to this specific kind of unhappiness, of course), yet once again with some fine additions, like those lovely leads. In The Arms Of Winter contains that xylophone-alike thing too, giving this composition a somewhat cosmic touch. Also some atmospheric keyboard lines play a prominent role in the definition of this track’s coldness. But then… Coma, the longest track (over thirteen minutes). Extremely remarkable here, even more than when it comes to the other hymns, are those haunting / haunted screams: sadistically tortured, wrathful hysteria. …like an instrument, a song apart… Here too the xylophone-alike melodies appear, yet even more beautiful than before. The very slow and permanently repetitive core of the song is truly mesmerizing. The last hymn, Lost In The Gray Days, is the only short one, clocking less than three minutes. In some way it reminds me to Nights Amore, another cheerful combo, if only because of the ambient atmosphere and the spoken word-sample. But for sure there is much more to ‘experience’, making this outro a perfect ending for this mostly uncomfortable journey called Hypnotic Depression.
Watch out for upcoming reviews on Echo Grid and Nyctophilia (and also check out Castellum Stoufenburc’s martial material)…