Vargsheim
Erleuchtung

Germany’s Vargsheim are back with their second full length album, they have a pair of splits in their books as well but this as stated is their second album. It is called Enlightenment if you translate the title to British, it has a rather uninteresting cover artwork but of course we should never judge a book by its cover which is why I have given this album a good deal of time and attention. They are said to be doing black metal with some seventies rock and atmosphere added to it as a bit of a spice. They are also said to be unique, which is something most bands aren’t and especially most that are claimed to be unique aren’t. So what about these guys? are the claims of uniqueness correct or is there something else to this album?

Well, it stands on a black metal foundation and to that there is some spice in terms of seventies rock influences and also an atmospheric tendency. The vocals are performed in German and they are sung in a croaking fashion, not really growls but more croaks in a sort of depressive manner. The sound is very good and clean so we can claim that they have a rather good production, the sound is powerful yet refined. What about the uniqueness then? Well, there is nothing to that claim, this band is no more unique than any other modern metal band that tries to step away slightly from the mainstream of a particular genre. They have some own traits but not much more than that but the vocals in German of course adds a slightly own feel to it. The album in itself is not that much varied over the seven tracks and near fifty minutes of music that it entails but it has a good production as I stated before.

A solid production and a good album is how I would like to describe this album, the songs are all rather good and there are no apparent weak points at first glance. Nothing unique but a solid and rather good album that is a good listen without really shining I would say. The songs are all good but there are no standout tracks in any direction, no hit songs or rubbish ones which makes it an album with songs of general high quality. This lack of variation is a slight issue making the album feel somewhat long as there are no distinct attention grabbers amongst the songs which makes this album into one of those you can like but not really think much about.

So in the end I would say that this is a fairly good album, nothing spectacular but a solid good production that will most likely to appeal to fans of pagan metal or atmospheric blackish metal. I would say that Vargsheim does alright with this album and with a bit more variation and perhaps a hit song they have a winner but that is for another time.

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