Review for the first three singles off of the upcoming album from Eisige Venen.
The cold of the night sends shivers through your veins as you wander below a lunar soaked landscape. The sounds of your footsteps echo in your head, leaving imprints within the snow, imprints deep inside your mind, wandering, and leaving imprints of what once was far behind you among the shadows of the forest of your past. Your path is illuminated before you by the guiding stars and your souls determination to seek out what it yearns for. But what is it? That's the question isn't it? Each one of us are endlessly searching for meaning and direction every day while we live and breathe in this life of ours. Some of us find it and many of us do not. Then there are the individuals out there among us who create music that helps to guide us on our path along the way to finding our own unique meaning within our chaos. Eisige Venen's music is one such outfit that seems to have the ability to tap into that wanderlust style of music that drenches your soul in wonderment. Bands such as Summoning, Agalloch, and Woods Of Ypres are but a few examples that fit within the vein of music that Eisige Venen walks along.
Blending a number of genres within the metal scene, Eisige Venen can come off to the musically or metal uninitiated as simply, black metal. But they are so much deeper than that. On the surface the music is most definitely of the black metal ilk, but if you simply lean back, close your eyes, and listen, you'll be treated to layers of different styles all blending and complimenting each other in a dismal, yet beautiful musical canvas that all lends to their craft. Forming in 2020, founding member, Marc Williams began this project, from the sounds of it, as a way, like so many independent artists do, to use it as a way to fully be in control of his own music and musical direction, paying homage to his favorite bands and styles of music. He soon found likeminded musicians to bring in to the fold who play similar styles to round things out with Curtis Fitzpatrick, formerly of, Ba'alzamon, on vocals, and Christopher Brandon on bass guitar.
Eisige Venen's first musical offering we are going to dive into off of their upcoming album is titled, Taken By Winter's Grace. Opening things up we have a synth-scape before jumping into a scathing and cold black metal beat down reminiscent of old Satyricon, but not so much since there is the aforementioned synth work, and not your typical chorus and strings effects, those are present, but Marc blends in those synth effects of early 2000's melodeath bands like Kalmah or Norther, those of you who know, simply know, especially if you listen to this track. It is actually a refreshing take on dark, oppressive, sometimes depressive and atmospheric black metal by simply utilizing those synth effects and stepping outside of the atypical black metal box. Those types of synth pads thrown into the mix adds a unique experience to what is a fantastic track to introduce you to what Eisige Venen is all about.
Moving right along on this adventure of the musical kind, we have the song called, Death Springs Eternal. For a moment we get lost in the night songs of frogs chirping at the water's edge. The following music is just as peaceful, yet heavy in it's thick emotions and powerful presentation. The riff work here compliments the vocal approach and keeps things dark and beautiful. Some excellent and creative tremolo blasting riffs fill your ears with classic black metal melodies of the cavernous kind. This music really does make one want to put on your boots, grab your backpack and just get lost under the blanket of darkness, just exploring your world as the music's evocations beckon you further, where it will take you, only you know as you wander, finding yourself.
You ever experience those moments where you get super emotional, but in a good way? You feel it swelling up inside as it just takes over and you feel solace in giving in. Those such feelings are evocative of the final track so far from this band. A Frigid Emptiness Wraps up our first foray into this bands musical offerings, and it's a track that seems to evoke emotions of longing and many more, these guys are, simply put, really fucking good at highlighting raw emotions in their music. Much like the previous track, this song has some really catchy and powerfully emotive melodies within the riffs. Those interesting synth pad effects return that add an element of mystique and awe to the chorus and string effects that dance within the powerful chords from the guitars. This was such a fantastic song to listen to and I recommend putting on headphones for all of them to really let those synth effects soak in.
It has been a very long time since I was struck so deeply from a bands music, the last time music like this hit me in such a way was the very first time I discovered Agalloch. The fact that Agalloch is sadly no more, left me with a void for that type of music, and Eisige Venen might be on their way to filling that void in my musical collection. Are they heavy with brutal riffs? No, but that isn't the point with this type of metal. The heaviness comes in the form of the power of the music itself as a whole and raw emotions that it awakens inside of you as you listen. This music is heavy in a spiritual sense, the type of heaviness that can only be appreciated by listening to these songs, it's a entirely different level of heaviness that washes over you.
For being a new band, these guys are on to something here with this music. I'd love to hear some clean guitars and acoustics thrown into future songs, and maybe some piano to really highlight the emotions they are trying to convey with these songs. You owe it to yourself to check this music out if you are looking for a different experience within the metal community. These songs will definitely find a place in your collection so give them a follow on their social media pages and show some support for them on their band camp because they're hard at work on new material and if this is any indication of how their album will sound, then I am definitely onboard with them and will proudly support them.
Review by Joshuah Jones, the bassist of The Obsidian Resurrection.
