Klabautamann - The Old Chamber (2011)

Delivering 47 minutes of forward-thinking Black Metal, today we have Germany’s Klabautamann and their very interesting “The Old Chamber” release. While every other BM band is trying to be more evil than the others, it is very nice to hear so many bands from Germany (like Farsot, etc) that are trying to keep alive a genre that is plagued by bad songwriting and toilet-sounding low-fi releases. With “The Old Chamber”, the band manages sound a bit like Primordial but keeping a bigger Black Metal edge.

With “Mary’s Abbey” the band delivers commanding riffs and hellish vocals nicely surrounded by a dense atmosphere. The guitar work is excellent and carries this song nicely, never going over the top and establishing a very determined pace. Another onslaught of riffs is on the horizon with the more aggressive “Fog Spawn”. Here the band sounds very much like a mixture of Primordial with Vreid, very impressive we might add. In the vein of Taake and Horna, “The Crown of the Wild” delivers a traditional Black Metal formula but with some clean vocals and interesting ‘slower’ passages, keeping things fresh and enjoyable.

As an acoustic interlude, “The Old Chamber” nicely provides a breather before the remaining crushing tracks. “Death’s Canvas” delivers a nicely structured song with an excellent build-up to a very eerie piano closing. With “Black Rain”, the Satyricon spirit is invoked with catchy riffing and slow sections, making this our favorite track of the album. “The Dying Night” nicely closes this release with a very melodic Black Metal sound that greatly showcases the band’s ability to deliver crushing-yet-melodic BM.

We really can’t see why BM fans would not enjoy “The Old Chamber”, this release has excellent guitar work, hellish vocals, tight drumming and a pounding bass guitar line. The band sounds like so many different bands but still manages to have a unique identity to their sound. If you like engaging Black Metal that goes beyond being super evil and ‘kvlt’, give Klabautamann a try and you will not be disappointed at all.

Release: November 21st, 2011

Country: Germany