Find the coverage and some great photos of this year's Devilstone Open Air written by our Lithuanian contributor Inga here>> www
Death metal is such a limitless genre. You can do whatever you'd like. It can be over the top technical or slow. Brutal or insane and it's all so good. When we made "Visions of Death" it just came out with a natural old school-ish vibe and that's great, but our newer material has a much more modern technical vibe. I love how death metal has evolved.
For me, death metal should be heavy as fuck, brutal (which doesn't necessarily mean "fast"), atmospheric and evil. If the "evil" thing is not there, you can't label yourself death metal, that's a fact. I'm so fucking close minded when it comes to metal music... I listen to the SAME hard rock, heavy, thrash, doom, death and black metal that I used to listen to 15 years ago.
Taking their moniker from a goblin that is able to predict shipwrecks German atmospheric progressive black metal duo Klabautamann are now on to their third album. Just like Norwegian genre icons Borknagar this German duo combine atmospheric black metal with progressive metal and sing half of this record in their mother tongue. Like Borknagar "Merkur" fuses melancholy with aggression, darkness with fury and does so in a very convincing and heroic manner. "Merkur" is featuring session drums by Centaurus-A drummer Patrick Schroeder and his masterful work behind the kit lift this material to a plain all its own. "Merkur" has the same majestic and epic feeling as the classic albums of this genre, spiced up with the band's patented progressive sections, light folk melodies, rich acoustics and jazzy interludes. Recorded by Tim Steffens at Nomad Recordings "Merkur" comes with enormous production emphasizing each instrument in the right way. Mastered by Tom Kvalsvoll at Strype Audio (Arcturus, Emperor, Keep Of Kalessin) Klabautamann easily blow away any of the bands on major labels. The artwork, design and lay-out by Jan Buckard isn't very special but nevertheless fits the record well. Klabautamann is the answer to an underground scene saturated by imitators and pretenders to the throne. "Merkur" is the atmospheric black metal record you need to hear this year.http://www.zeitgeistermusic.comcomment itWouter 8
