Valkyrian Music

Agael/Lebensnacht (split)
Apathologie
Released: July2012
Black Metal/ Dark Ambient
Released via Naturmacht Productions

‘Apathologie’ is a split album featuring the German black metal/dark ambient project Agael and the dark ambient/black metal artist Lebensnacht. According to an official press release this split album focuses on “the final target to find true life” with each band offering their unique interpretation of the subject.

First up is Lebensnacht with a sombre piano track called ‘Elaboren’. Very atmospheric and soothing as far as dark ambient goes. With ‘Im Käfig’ come the raw black metal style guitar riffs and somewhat disturbing sounding vocals. Burzum and Beyond The Ninth Wave are probably the only bands which I could compare this to. Similar things can be said about ‘Lebensnacht’ but luckily there’s ‘Dem Ende Nah’ which provides some singing birds mixed with the right kind of dark ambient to soothe my ears.

Agael is more atmospheric in nature as ‘Offenbarung’ reveals itself to be a soundtrack to an uplifting experience of tranquility through meditation. ‘Vom Nichtsein’ and ‘Die letzte Geburt’ are leaning more towards black metal with shrieking vocals mixed in with melodic guitar riffs. Though the dark ambient elements are still lurking in the background thanks to the sombre keyboard noises. The instrumental ‘Remorphose’ combines the melodic guitars with the tranquil ambiance making for a very pleasant sounding track.

3.5/5 – Overall

3/5 – tracks by Lebensnacht
4/5 – tracks by Agael

Iza Raittila

This entry was posted on 18th July 2012 at 7:33 pm and is filed under Review with tags Ambient music, Black Metal, Dark ambient, Ninth Wave, Split album. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.