Schwarzristall reviewed by Ellen Simpson in Hierophant Nox. Read the original review at: http://hierophant-nox.com/issue15/schwarzkristallreview.htm
"Schwarzkristall came highly recommended to me, and I’m going to pass the same tip onto you, just in case you are not at first glance tempted by another underground, corpse-painted foursome pushing seemingly-classic black metal to the chosen few who can get their hands on an indecipherably-covered demo. Firstly, what’s wrong with you? Everyone starts off somewhere, and there are plenty of cracking demos lurking under the metaphorical rocks and trees of the black metal underground. Secondly, well, secondly is a bit like firstly – Schwarzkristall are clearly at the head of this wilderness pack.
The foundation of this Austrian act’s sound is raw, primitive black metal, with muscular riffs, plenty of trem, a machine gun battery of percussion and, pleasingly, buckets of bass. Switching between misanthropically stately and demonically frantic, the icy, screeching, dissonant noise that makes up a goodly portion of this demo is as old as time, but performed with more skill and poise than the band should fairly have at this stage in their career, the guitar especially being employed with both brains and cold, evil soul. I know, proficient blasting and howling alone isn’t enough to tempt you down from your ivory towers of taste. Delve a little bit deeper then, into what makes Schwarzkristall quite so special.
The introduction to the demo, “Und Es Begann”, a lengthy ambient exercise in freezing rain, bassy grumblings and evil, low, ear-scything synths gives you a hint at the band’s imagination, but an atmospheric instrumental is par for the course; it’s when the weird and the wonderful enters their general song-writing that the magic happens. Whether it be the delicious, Shining-esque clean break in the title track, all bending guitar strings, loose percussion and despair, or the corrosive, searing drone of feedback that opens a clean re-imagining of the main theme during “Begrabnis des Lichts”, or even the more orthodox break to an off-beat drum and a dripping, toxic lead on “Gefrierpunkt”, the best thing about Schwarzkristall is the confidence with which they deconstruct the standard black metal templates, re-writing tradition to privilege their own particular skills, especially in the guitar department.
In all, I’m trying to find a convincing way of explaining just what makes “Schwarzkristall” excellent black metal, and I don’t really need to – if you have any love for this genre, you’ll be a fan as soon as you give this band a shot. At the moment they’re free to experiment all the like, resulting in long tracks with many flashes of greatness chained together – given the challenge and focus of a full-length, I think they’ll flourish even more. Black metal to remind you why you fucking liked it so much in the first place".
86/100
Ellen Simpson
SCHWARZKRISTALL on:
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/schwarzkristall
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/schwarzkristallofficial
