By Lav Nandlall
Piercing through the walls of structured sound on their fourth full-length album entitled Meadows of Nostalgia are German based band, Imperium Dekadenz. The two-piece atmospheric metal ensemble buckles and obliterates their musical instruments to create a distinctive brew of horror and melancholy.
The horror on Meadows of Nostalgia comes from the juddering vocals of Horaz that can be best likened to the bellowing fires of Hell. Unlike most black metal musicians, Horaz prefers to keep his lyrics clean and stutter away from religion and its counterpart politics. The melancholies on Meadows of Nostalgia originate with the heavy distortion on bass, bashing on drums and an eerie shiver of the synths played by Vespasian. Imperium Dekadenz’ influences are wringed from the second wave of Norwegian black metal which can be pre-eminently described as a crossover of Blut Aus Nord and Drudkh. This crossover has resulted in nine beastly tracks that have prodigious production and mastering values with the help of Iguana studios. A standout track to best illustrate such praise is 'Brigobannis'. Its depth of callousness is strong whilst the atmosphere the track spins is one of icy forests and shards of despair. Throughout the album, there is a bite of neck biting riffs and a sense of the band coming through. However, the tracks do tend to stretch out for too long. Some of the tracks are fair length but 'Aue Der Nostalgie' grates for ten minutes.
Just like the tracks tell a story of its own so does the album artwork. The 2013 album artwork is a simple depiction of a man contemplating life with the picturesque fog ridden Black Forest Mountains behind him. That portraiture sets the scene of what to expect from Imperium Dekadenz, a frost bitten horror story that ends in endless melancholy. Meadows of Nostalgia is a dramatic album that is worthy of enigmatic praise. Grab a copy of this Season of Mist release – you won’t be disappointed.
