To the non-native ear, German is a rather brutal language. Where other languages have words that roll off the tongue and caress the ear canal, German pierces like a nail in the foot. There surely is no better place for such a tongue than an album full of the post genres of metal. On Auf Grund, German five piece Ewig.Endlich. weave a rich tapestry of multiple sub-genres with beauty, brutality and above all a focused diversity which creates a massively impressive debut release.
This really is a hard release to pin to one genre as by the time you get to the end of the third track the music has traversed through post-metal, post-hardcore, post-black metal, doom and sludge – yet the album never feels like focus has been lost and the diversity carries on throughout the album. There is a consistent feel in the vocal delivery and the atmosphere captured in the recording. The vocals are predominately in a traditional post-metal guise with each word being audible though screamed yet all in German and the recordings have a really rich and warm feeling to them.
When the band dip into post-black metal on ‘In Anderen Spiegeln’ the blast beating snare drum rumbles rather than snaps and symbol crashes feel like warm water coating your face. These sorts of touches come through even the harshest of moments on the album. ‘Limes’ has a doomy drone touch to it with the harshest vocal and riff delivery combination on the album, yet the sound is warm and rounded rather than flat and sharp.
The one genre that is visited the most on the album is post-metal and these fundamental tracks all span between 7 and 8 minutes. ‘Menschenkind’, ‘Schwarz Und Stern’ and ‘Abend’ all tackle the genre at different angles, but with the same outstanding result. Closing track ‘Dir’ takes all the influences from the previous tracks and gels them together into a behemoth of a song which is a fitting way to close the album.
Along with the music the vocals are something I love about this band. I don’t know more than five words of the German language but that doesn’t spoil the enjoyment of this release, if anything it enhances it. When words are meaningless the delivery becomes an extra instrument and when lyrics can’t be understood they can’t throw the listener off a song. I find nothing worse than hearing a great song with terrible lyrics over the top, no such problem here due to my ignorance. Although greatly consistent the vocal delivery traverses the same musical landscape and rises and stretches with the other instruments.
This is certainly one of the finest releases I have heard in a couple of years and an album that offers a great deal of diversity without distracting the listener. Numerous artists have tried this approach but few have ever met it with such quality as Ewig.Endlich. If you have any tastes for any post genre of metal you will definitely find something on Auf Grund to satisfy.
