Dornenreich - In Luft Geritzt
Prophecy
Neofolk
10 songs (44:09)
Release year: 2008
Dornenreich, Prophecy
Reviewed by Goat

It’s fitting, really, that Dornenreich’s sixth full length is completely acoustic. Where many predicted Black Metal becoming some kind of Industrial nightmare at the turn of the century due to experimental albums from the likes of Satyricon and Mayhem, few could have seen Folk waiting just around the corner, ready to become the all-encompassing focus of many an ex-corpsepainted horde, the fashionable alternate to the discerning modern listener. Ever since the projected millennial cataclysm spectacularly failed to appear, there’s been a sense that imagining dark futuristic worlds where man meshes with machine is passé somehow. No, to really get mankind’s inner beast we have to travel back rather than forwards, back to the days where existence was a real battle, when men were men, goats were goats, and Vikings were a real, raping ‘n’pillaging threat rather than jolly ale-and-wench-quashing men with beards. So it is here, the melodic Black Metal of the Austrian duo becoming an equally dark campfire invocation.

Using only violin and acoustic guitar, with a tambourine for percussion (all recorded live and un-messed with yet sounding wonderfully clear) Dornenreich has created something special. The album’s title means ‘carved in air’ and is fitting; there’s truly a sense of the band building something out of very little. The melodies are intricate, with a motif piece repeated in several places throughout the album serving to tie it all together. Eviga’s vocals are suitably restrained, and there’s a subtle air of desperation to his whispers and chants that works well with the mournful instrumentation.

Although at certain moments some of his slightly angrier moments (relatively angrier that is, there are no actual screams or growls here) may sound like something off a Rammstein: unplugged album, overall this is a wonderful exploration of Folk from a pair of talented musicians. It’s nigh on impossible to listen to this without a mental image of the members sat around a fire at night – if Korpiklaani is what you listen to whilst dancing around the fire, In Luft Geritzt is the aftermath, when you’re lying on the ground looking up at the stars, the post-party comedown, the moment of quiet introspection that we all indulge in occasionally without quite knowing why. If you enjoy Ulver’s Folksy moments and find the violin soothing rather than irritating, then In Luft Geritzt needs your time.

MySpace
Killing Songs :
Drang, Unruhe, Sehnlauf, Meer
Goat quoted 80 / 100
Other albums by Dornenreich that we have reviewed:
Dornenreich - Freiheit reviewed by Neill and quoted 80 / 100
Dornenreich - Flammentriebe reviewed by Goat and quoted 87 / 100
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