Gorrenje "Rabenglanz" CD

Limited to 500 copies Hateful German black metal debut demo.

For quite some time now new black metal bands spring up like mushrooms but most of them do very poorly. However there are anomalies as well. The one man project Gorrenje is one of them. The way how this record was created speaks volumes: Both-sided high glossy paper, well printed CD-R and a very beautiful backcover including handnumbers, are not usually at all. Very nice package... but now to the music.
Four songs to a whole of 20 minutes printed on 222 handnumbered copies - looks a bit short at first sight. A short intro, two songs, a longer outro - are you serious? Why not, after all Rentiss (responsible for drums and voice) composed catchy, discrete and outstanding material. The listener is confronted with some samples and a riff as an intro which prepares you for the forthcoming tracks. "Der Ahnen Rache" blows you away by its mangy tunes and atmosphere. Only a few, temporary exciting melodies burst out of your speakers. The following track "Vergessene Sagen" comes in the same way without being like the forerunner. From time to time the samples are a bit overdone because the ravensounds and battleroars sometimes interrupt the event - it's not that bad at all. "Vergangenes vergessen..." represents a long outro pared with a lots of short acoustic breaks, based on a seven-minute background raven caw. Now this sounds worse than it is in fact because Rentiss manages to guide the listeners ear on the well performed keys.
Result: Awesome first attempt to gain ground in Black metal. If the further releases by Gorrenje can keep the level of "Rabenglanz" we can look forward to some brillant works which will surely be much better than the average is.
There's one thing you have to concede to Gorrenjes re-release: This tape is just great! The well printed cover with silver letters as well as the printed auditape look markedly professional and don't need to avoid any comparison. Although you have to say that even the smallest hint of "underground" gets lost (which demo-tapes use to have, at least they should). But within this tape the eye listens as well thus the apperance gains more friends than critics.
Concerning the content it has to be mentioned that first of all the release is limited to now 400 copies, it got expanded by one track named "Blut bleibt Blut" which assembles the tape very well in both ways - musically and qualitative - and perfectly fits in the conception. In the course of my addition to the review by my fellow above, I have to say that I would have settled my personal evaluation a few points lower because in my opinion "Rabenglanz" is in fact a well done and elaborate release but I cannot say that it is above average.

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