Birkabein ‎"Malevolance & Glory" CD

Limited to 500 copies. Recorded 2012 in Saarland Krieghallen Studio.

Saarland black metal, with members of Grausamkeit, Old Pagan, Pagan Winter...

- "My Revenge Comes in Winter" on "Saarrevier" (2011, Runenstein Records)
- "Schicksalsfaden" on "Saarland Black Metal - Sampler II" (2015, Narbentage Produktionen)

Formed in 1999 by multi-instrumentalists Machosias and B.S.oD., Birkabein is a Germany black metal band that hasn't released a whole lot of material since forming. The band's first demo, Land der ewigen Nacht, was released in 1999 and the band's second demo, Birkabein, was released twelve years later in 2011. In 2015 the band released their debut full length album, Malevolance & Glory, though the project is now the solo effort of Machosias, most likely B.S.o.D. has been in and out of prison for nine of the last twelve years.
Machosias performed bass, drums and guitars on the album, enlisting help from fellow Old Pagan member Panzer Nidhogg for vocals and Nelandhir member Freydagson for keyboards. The result is a five track, twenty-six minute offering of rather schizophrenic black metal. The album is rooted somewhere between raw black metal and atmospheric black metal, which winds up sounding quite forced in places. The guitar riffs are enjoyable, with flowing trem riffing leading, creating a fuzzy wall of sound in the background that merges with the flourishes of atmospheric keyboard notes while he drumming sticks with fast paced double bass runs and double kick patterns, even when the rest of the music seems to be reaching for more of an atmospheric sound. The band seems to have a solid grasp of instrumentation, but execution and songwriting a bit lacking.
Don't get me wrong, there is a solid undercarriage of trem riffing and frenetic percussion, but Birkabein never sticks with something long enough to become trance inducing, which is something that both top quality raw black metal and solid atmospheric black metal should focus on. The album is under thirty minutes in length, which really stifles the small amount of grandiosity the band reaches for. Malevolance & Glory would pack a much more powerful punch if the songs were able to create convincing atmospherics, but because the riffs flit by too quickly the band never really finds a creative peak. As it stands, the band just kind of plods along for the album, never really moving from the middle of the road.

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...