Urfaust – Einsiedler (2009)

The Dutch duo of Urfaust comes back with their latest 2 song EP “Einsiedler” and after doing a bit of research about this band I figured I was into another pointless voyage from ‘just another’ crappy Ambient/Raw Black Metal band, and I was very wrong about this.

“Einsiedler” features over 18 minutes of mesmerizing Ambient/Raw Black Metal that should be set as one of the standards for the genre. Their amazing ambiance created by the keyboards in the track “IX Einsiedler” is both eerie and enthralling I have not enjoyed a simple but well composed keyboard arrangement like this one in quite a while. While you still have the traditional shrieks on the song, they also added a very melodic clean vocal that complements the track to perfection. The overall down-tempo and doomy feeling of this song is amazing and it’s probably one of the reasons I enjoyed the full 11 minutes it lasts.

The second track “Verderber” is actually a bit more ‘harsh’ but it still creates a haunting atmosphere based on the guitar work and the desperation howls. It also features interesting speedups just in time when the song starts to drag a bit. In my opinion this track is a bit weaker than the first one, but it still is pretty decent.

Being such a short EP there is only a certain amount of things you can say about it, but one thing is for sure this band creates a perfect blend of ambiance and rawness that few other band can say they do. I will definitely be waiting for their new full length release, but for now this EP will have to keep me going.

Release: 8/7/09

Country: Netherlands