Artist: Infaust
Title: Blutbad und Melancholie
Type: Album
Label: Eisenton
One thing which Infaust have most certainly got right, judging by “Blutbad und Melancholie” (Bloodbath and Melancholy), is the marketing of this relentless work of disease-ridden Black Metal. The name of the band, we’re told, means a hopelessly incurable state, leading to certain death. Meanwhile the bloodbath and melancholy are there to accompany the despair and utter grimness which rampages through this work.
The opener “Toteneiche” (Dead Oak Tree) ominously works its way up and down the scale. The blackened atmosphere is constant, like that of fellow Germans Endstille. It’s clear that this album is going to be a relentless pursuit of death. “Hoffnung des Sterbenden” (Hope of the Dying) starts slowly, not that “Toteneiche” remotely resembled the joy of life. The drum beat then quickens while the guitars scream sadness and despair. Its rhythm is somehow strangely appealing. The vocalist croaks meanwhile as if he’s expiring. “Dunkle Obsessionen” (Dark Obsessions) is another grim assault. Stylistically it’s old style and nothing that haven’t heard on an Endstille album, just darker. I must stress that it’s not Norwegian in its outpouring of Black Metal. Harsh as it is, it has too much continuity and “melody” for that. “Dunkle Obsessionen” breaks into acoustic mode for 5 seconds, otherwise it’s solid punishment and despair, a theme which “Nahe – Tod – Erlebnisse” (Near – Death – Experiences) continues. It has a sad terminality about it. The guitar is higher in the range. The singer screams for mercy and doesn’t find it. The drummer batters for hell. The only variation on the theme is to be found on “Aus der Tiefe” (From the Depths), an evocative and sinister piano track. It’s loaded with atmosphere and breaks up the relentless desperation of the other tracks. It conjures up visions of people contemplating death in a lonely house on the hill. “Blutbad und Melancholie” is a relentless fanfare of grimness, but I have to say that apart from “Aus der Tiefe”, the last six tracks sound the same and don’t go anywhere musically that we haven’t been before.
For all my criticism that the latter part of “Blutbad und Melancholie”, the band’s second album, has little development and is repetitive, this old style Black Metal still has impact. It’s clear that despair and hopelessness are what Infaust are good at, in line with their name.
http://www.myspace.com/infaust
http://www.infaust-blackmetal.de
http://www.eisenton.de
Andrew Doherty
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