This album is unbelievable. Not only it is one of the greatest debut albums ever, but to this day fights with the likes of Satyricon's "Dark Medieval Times" or Burzum's "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" for the title of "most entrancing album of all time" in my book. Sure, Kanwulf, the main man behind Nargaroth, spent several years writing and recording demos before having the chance to record an proper album, and "Herbstleyd" itself existed in demo form before No Colours Records gave Kanwulf the chance of a lifetime, yet the strength of the material is impressive beyond words for a debut studio effort.
Written entirely by Kanfulf and almost completely performed only by the man itself, feturing his fellow black metaller Charoon as a session lead guitarist, "Herbstleyd" is a joruney through a different world and a different time.
The incredibly intense feeling of atmosphere and ambience is strengthened by the abundance of sound, speech and music samples throughout the album, adding a new element and blending perfectly with the spirit of the music. The production is "suitably harsh", meaning that it's not overworked and clinical (which wiould ruin the spirit of the songs) but you don't have to make your ears bleed to understand what's going on. The guitars are thick and don't lack a good old end, the bass is perceivable, the drums sound very natural and raw (although the cymbals lack some power) and the keyboards are goven the right level in the mix. Kanwulf's voice is not very clear (it has never been much anyway) but it has its own share of aggressiveness and is made more enjoyable with the constant use of a slight echo.
As the album starts, we are first greeted by a seven minutes introduction, a jigsaw of medieval chantings, battle and nature sounds and movie speeches (in German) enrichened by effective keyboard passages. It is the perfect mood setter for the rest of the album, and in case you think it might be too drawn out, know that I have NEVER fast forwarded this since I bought my copy of this cd. Then, all of a sudden, the title track begins with a scream and a slow, melancholic and beautiful melody, with the guitars and keyboards painting a cold, misty autumnal scenery, sustained by a basic drum pattern hanging between the martial and the funeral march and completed by a haunting flute melody which sets in at the third measure. Then, a much faster and aggressive riff comes in; Kanwulf's blastbeats might be clumsy at times but it doesn't really affect the final result. A haungting keyboard break, another blasting interlude and here come the lyrics, over yet another slow and emotion laden riff, before another blasting section brings us back to the incredibly beautiful opening riff for the grand finale. The alnum starts in the best possible way, and it's only just begun.
"Karmageddon", the only song of the album to feature English lyrics, opens with a sad clean guitar arpeggio over the sound of blowing wind and Kanwulf groaning the first verse, before the song turns into a kind of war march and finally into a pure Black Metal assault with Kanwulf screaming as if possessed by some dark force, until only the same sad clean guitar is left weeping over the remains of devastation as Kanwulf mourns "the oceans black burnt the land... and no cry will be heard...".
"Nargaroth" is next, and instrumental built on energic guitar riffs which have a somewhat Medieval taste; despite being about just two minutes long it has a fair amount of variation and subtle tempo changes, which also give room to a very headbangable part.
More wind blowing welcomes the listener to the cold lands of the forth song, the epic "Des alten Kriegers Seelenruh'"; beginning with a plodding war march style rhythm and surreal keyboards singing in the distance, the song then evolves into a another blastbeat assault just to stop and give way to an incredibly cold, haunting middle section just made by a sad clean guitar, a slow, soft beat and Kanwulf's echoing voice, over the ever present sound of the wind. This is where you really realize how the sound effects are cleverly used here, and never trenspass the border of cheesiness. The song picks up again to a more upbeat and triumphant finale, sealing yet another mastepiece.
The second half of the album begins with the immense "Amarok - Zorn des Lammes", an almost 20 minute opus filled with great samples; I just wish I knew where such excerpts come from because the soundtrack you can hear here is absolutely superb. Of course cool samples aren't enough to make a good song, and that's why Kanwulf provided some hugely effective riffs, revealing his admiration for Burzum in their trance inducing repetition.
After such a song, a little break is needed, thus enter "Das schwarze Gemälde", a majestic keyboard instrumental built around sad yet catchy melodies, made deeper by the clever use of several different patches and percussion beats (also made by synth) which turn into an actual pattern in the last part, something I have personally never heard in a (metal) album.
The last song, "Vom Traum, die Menschheit zu töten", is yet another collection of awesome riffs and different tempos which Kanwulf dedicates to Rob Darken of Graveland as a statement of admiration for his opus "Thousand Swords". A short speech outro, and the journey is over, with not a single unmemorable riff or unsatisfying moment.
The beauty and enthralling atmosphere of this album (I think it could be called "Ambient Black Metal") can be hardly put into words... so do yourself a favour and track this down, if you don't have it already. Pure magnificence translated into some of the best music I've heard in ages.
Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=ygGLkMiU_XQ
