Geisterfels ~ La névrose de la pierre

Words like mood and atmosphere get thrown around a lot these days especially when you are talking about black metal albums. In the early years of the genre it was pretty easy... evil and Satan... But eventually, (unless you happen to be Dark Funeral) that subject is going to run it's course. Obviously over time bands have tried to explore other subjects, sometimes they succeed and sometimes they fail miserably. Creating an atmosphere or having a theme for an album means more than just writing different lyrics set to the same old black metal tropes that have been done a billion times before. Just because you are screaming about 16th century baked goods doesn't mean you have successfully conveyed the "mood" or "atmosphere" of your concept album about medieval pastry.

Fortunately for all of us Geisterfels clearly understands that it takes more than just lyrics about medieval castles and ancient forests to convey a message... especially, (if you are like me) and don't actually speak the language their songs are written in. As luck would have it however my wife is fluent in French and was able to roughly translate a few of the songs lyrics for my dumb ass. 

The concept of La névrose de la pierre is the tale of a French poet who visited the Rhine and Mosel valleys at the end of the nineteenth century. He is amazed by the many castles he finds on his journey and his poems thus make a parallel between the majestic ruins he has seen as well as the sorrows leading his mind to collapse. This is an incredibly heady concept for any black metal artists, thankfully Geisterfels is able to pull this off in spades. 

The name Geisterfels is German for the Cliff of Ghosts. It is the name of an imaginary castle whose story is told in the song "Geisterfels" on the album and this haunting medieval atmosphere is conveyed amazingly well even if you don't speak French. Geisterfels has managed to captured just enough of the tempos and moods found in renaissance music without sacrificing any of the elements that make it black metal and even more surprisingly it doesn't come across like a black metal band performing at a renaissance faire. There are still plenty of blast beats, double base and tremolo guitar assaulting your senses throughout the entire album but woven into this is a subtle layer of foreboding melodies that give the album a well defined tone.

My favorite track by far La Chapelle Recousue which comes right out of the gate with a heavier sound and more aggressive vocals than any other track on the album yet still maintains the general atmosphere found throughout the rest of the album. Most of the tracks average out to be around 4 minutes or more in length holding to the Euro metal tradition of longer songs and they lack any of the "pop" hooks that seem to trap so many bands these days. Overall the entire work is an fantastic homage to classic 90's black metal with a modern twist that somehow mixes medieval qualities and themes almost effortlessly.

Geisterfels lineup consists of Nebel: Composition/lyrics, Aldébaran: All instruments and Aharon: Vocals. The band originally started as Nebel's personal project in 2013. Aldébaran (Darkenhöld) joined in 2015 and Aharon (Griffon) in 2016. La névrose de la pierre was released on October 31st 2017 by Six Raw Records. When I asked the band to describe their influences they sited bands like early Satyricon, Ulver and Abigor but the end game of Geisterfels is to capture the medieval mood and feel while staying true to the 90's black metal sound. 

      

One thing I typically don't mention in my articles is the packaging or presentation of an album. I usually skip this because a large portion of the music that I review only exists in digital format and therefore packaging doesn't really come into play. However after seeing the images of Geisterfels amazing metal CD case/box as well as the liner book included with the CD I felt that I should definitely show this off a little bit. With so many bands, artists and even record labels today being restricted by production costs it's becoming harder and harder to find physical copies worth spending your hard earned cash on. If you aren't into the vinyl LP or cassette scene most people just purchase digital copies of most albums. But when a group of artists like Geisterfels and their label Six Raw Records goes the extra mile to give fans something worthwhile to buy in a physical format it should definitely be mentioned. To pick up this amazing physical copy visit their Bandcamp page and order it today, at 15 Euro it's a steal. 

For more information about Geisterfels or to order their CD follow the links below. They are already working on another project so be sure to follow them on social media to stay up to date on everything they have going on. I'm sure that whatever they do next will be just as kick ass as this offering and I look forward to hearing more from them.

For more information or to hook up with them on social media...
https://geisterfels.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.facebook.com/Geisterfels-730735943766643/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rixwHhYZ-Cg