In many ways, Charnel Winds could be
said to be the culmination of certain bands hailing mostly from
Jyväskylä, an area that seems to spawn hell of a lot of quality
when it comes to utterly dark, esoteric black metal. We've got Arvet,
Verge, Blood Red Fog, Cosmic Church, Saturnian Mist and a ton more
and all these are related, and not only by sharing members, but more
importantly they are connected by similar occult approaches. This
means that Satan worshipping isn't just a gimmick here unlike the
case is with a plethora of other bands, no, this is authentic
reverence of the Devil and scorn of all mundane.
But what exactly makes Charnel Winds
stand above even its brother bands? A pretty short answer would be
that their debut album Der Teufelsbund has been in the works for
many, many, years, it has been perfected for a long time (and for
curious readers, the process of the album's creation has involved
e.g. one death and several visits to mental hospitals), and a few
years ago the album's demo version was already hyped, people saying
that this would become a definite milestone in Finnish black metal.
So when Werewolf Records finally unleashed this painfully delivered
monster, the expectations were undoubtedly high.
And due to these expectations it might
be why I don't think that Der Teufelsbund is exactly THAT
revolutionary, though we're still clearly dealing with a record that
is more convincing than 99 out of 100 new black metal albums.
Actually, the term black metal might not be enough here as the
album's diversity will show later on. Starting with the epic, ringing
melodies of ”The Spear and the Crocodile”, a more than apt grand
opening for the album, the listener is slowly introduced into the
albums sinister atmosphere. Rhythm guitars rumble steadily while a
discordant, tremolo-picked melody plays with Wyrmfang's impressive
rasps. I'm somewhat reminded of Mgla actually, and as I've said
before, I consider Wyrmfang to be among the best vocalists ever, so
he definitely fits here. ”Das Leiden” crawls at first like a
track from Verge's latest until it explodes into magnificent choral
vocals. At the latter half, the discordance is taken a level higher,
resulting in a really tasteful riff totally out of hands.
”Chained Kûmara” might surprise
the listener a bit, beginning with acoustic, mysterious Eastern
melodies. The singing is this time totally clean, a strong voice
proclaiming its message. The next two pieces, ”Assembly” and
”Shadow” are a tad more regular black metal pieces, but of high
quality anyways - ”Purification of the Sacred Black Heart”
includes once again clean vocals and the album's first properly (yet
only momentarily) melancholic guitarwork, and I think it's one of the
most beautiful moments I've heard in music in a while. ”Die Extase”
kicks in with a nightmarish atmosphere with a prominent bass guitar
line, later once again including clean vocals, lyrics this time for
Johannes Nefastos' pen.
It seems quite unnecessary to write
long paragraphs detailing different parts of every track, so those
two above shall suffice, most likely giving you enough hint of the
album's overall sound. What I personally find more important is the
lyrical side of the album which isn't anything easy this time.
Musically, I don't think Der Teufelsbund is really challenging if
you're willing to accept the untraditional elements in their black
metal, but lyrically I've had a lot of headaches over the texts, and I still don't think I've understood a lot, if basically anything...
But as far as I'm aware, it doesn't have a strict theme even
according to its creators. What comes to the overall theme, I'm
definitely seeing the influence of the Hindy deity Kumara here
everywhere, or more precisely his weapon, the divine javelin Vel. I'm
going to quite a few bits from a certain Saiva guru I came across
while doing a little research:
”Its blade is wide, long and keen,
just as our knowledge must be broad, deep and penetrating … the
holy vel is our release from ignorance into knowledge … When we
perform penance and beseech His blessing, this merciful God hurls His
vel into the astral plane, piercing discordant sounds, colors and
shapes, removing the mind's darkness. He is the King of kings, the
power in their scepters.”
In Der Teufelsbund's booklet, there's
many pictures of this spear piercing the principle of Satan (e.g.
snake), which has made me wondering why so. Isn't Satan supposed to
be more highly revered here, not as a lie that should be pierced? The
only proper reason I can come up with is that is symbolises the
overcoming of Satan's tribulations, the process of realizing the
necessity of the hardships given by Satan. From that perspective, the
Devil has a more important role than what I initially thought.
As the album is divided into seven
tracks, that already rings some bells of alchemical, theological,
planetary and whatnot correspondences. I can't say I'm enough
familiar with the texts that I could come up with any perfect
theories, but some wild guesses I can always throw: ”The Spear and
the Crocodile” I see as the process of fermentation, as the
evolution of life to produce higher consciousness, mystical
awareness. And on ”Das Leiden” I can see dissolution, the
cleansing of inferior shapes of the earth. The ending track ”Die
Extase” could refer to coagulation with its correspondences with
the Sun and gold. With these little thoughts I could be terribly
wrong about everything, as there's still a lot to digest from the
lyrics. But I can not hold on to writing about a reviewable album for
eternity, so...
Der Teufelsbund has been a headache,
but a very welcome one, shaking the spiritual me a little more awake,
if nothing more. But such philosophical ponderings are not required
if you are just to check out well-done, interesting black metal.
Sound-wise, the album is honey to the ears: it's not lo-fi at all,
but professional and full – it should also please those who
generally dislike scruffy productions. Needless to say, strong
recommendations to this album from yours truly. Thoughtful
compositions, good production, challenging lyrics, great artwork. You
don't see albums like Der Teufelsbund everyday.
4.5 / 5
