Absurd "Der Kaiser In Dem Berge" CD

There is some confusion over this release but what I'm reviewing here is the 6-track version titled "Der Kaiser in dem Berge." This is one of my favorite releases of 2024 and I can tell I'll be enjoying it for a long time.

Unhold's vocals are enjoyable and unique. He has a naturally deep voice yet does a higher shriek which results in a throaty, phlegmy, unique sound. You can tell he's had to practice his vocals and I love it. There's also folksy clean singing which has always been a part of the band's sound, and he does a good job there with no audible autotune or anything. Every song has clean singing.

There's a good variety in the riffs with different tempos, styles and moods throughout. Fast tempo tremolos shine on the opening tracks, similar to what they played on the previous album Werwolflicht. However these songs are better than what was on Werwolflicht because they're much less predictable: guitar solos, harmonics and time signature changes keep things interesting.

These fast opening songs trick the listener: you might think based on the first song that you're in for a harsh and manic blistering - but the longer the album goes on the calmer it gets. Classic rock-inspired playing signals the mid-album shift and each song seems to have more clean singing and less screaming than before, while also getting slower paced. Finally, the enormous title track is an almost ten-minute atmospheric piece of slow, peaceful melody complimented by the yodel-esque clean singing, harkening back to some of the band's folksiest early material. The transformation of sound is complete with the outro, an acoustic piece accompanied by humming.

Production is very clean, clear as glass. The mixing is guitar-heavy; with the addition of Gelal to the band they naturally want to show him off and I said, there are a lot of good technical elements to the guitar playing. This leaves the drums a little muted which is how Absurd in all its different incarnations has always sounded, so I can't complain about that much, but I will complain that vocals are mastered too quietly. At least the screams are. I like the sound of his phlegmy, ripping screams and having them so subdued is very weird and not at all fitting to the sound or aesthetic of the album. This small complaint about the mastering is the reason I didn't give it a perfect score, otherwise it's really a great album.

Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=kLa_FC1dKcs