On their sixth full-length in as many years, the musical scope is expanded to capture human longing for the extreme and our will to conquer the near impossible as their life hangs in a thread while chilly winds sweep by to try to blow you off the cliffs and slopes.
With immense creativity, it seems the composer and lyricist have reached another pinnacle of their musical career. The previous three concept albums took their inspiration from the 1820 Gothic novel Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin and made some of the best music in the genre, releasing one album per year. The composing force behind this music is the multi-instrumentalist called Berg (translates to mountain). He is impressively active, just four months ago he released an album with the band Modern Rites with Jonny Warren from the US band Kuyashii (here is our review of that record). Two other members of Aara complete his music; lyricist and snarling vocalist Fluss (translates to river or stream) and J. who pounds the drums and plays in numerous bands.
While the three previous albums were inspired by literature, this album is inspired by nature, more specifically the windswept, eerie beauty of the Swiss mountain Eiger, which rises 3967 meters in the Bernese Alps. The album´s musical concept is influenced by the mountain´s steep northern wall nick-named Mordwand (murder wall) cause for at least 34 deaths of climbers trying to reach the top of the raging mountain on this route.
Both the cover and the opening song ”Die das wilde Wetter fängt” set the tone for the album´s chilling ambiance as the music focuses on an accident back in 1934 when four mountaineers disappeared probably in an avalanche. The title translates to the wild and unpredictable weather sweeping such high mountains where climbers must be ready for anything at any time. And in this lies also the genius of Aara´s music on </i>Eiger</i> as it manages to capture the unforgiving nature. The song is dense, with heavy riffs and thunderous bass drums sounding like kettledrums, and in the middle of the blizzard, the snarling shrieks of the vocals desperately trying to penetrate the avalanches of riffs thrown at them. But it is not only barrages of riffs, blasting drums and fast tremolos sweeping over the vocals. The flow of music is strewn with counterpoints of wonderful acoustic guitar. It is like the weather in the mountains, a freezing wind can simmer down and open a glimpse of sun gliding over the once-frozen landscape.
The music undulates from tight riffing, fast tremolos and hurricane-like blasts to a clearing with reflective acoustic parts. The opening song fades in among sweeping cold winds with sound effects forming a dark atmosphere and far away one can hear a guitar sparkling as an indistinct voice speaks. The uncanny darkness of the album is set as the Atmospheric Black Metal music abruptly is set in motion with cold guitar, ponderous bass drum, layered sound effects and deep bass combining into a melodic theme as the drums turn into blast pace and the familiar bone-shaking screams emerge penetrating the avalanches of tremolo guitars. The drumsticks flutter over the bass drums to give a thunderous impression while the fast working, layered guitars soar over the bass driven rhythm section.
”Senkrechte Welten” (Vertical Worlds) continues with a monolithic opening by tremolo guitars and blastbeats, with drumsticks flying and rolling over the bass drums. The ever-present tremolo guitar forms a melodic theme that climbs upon you as you listen. The screeching voice emerges and the guitars erect a prolonged wall of distorted cold sound. When the vocals are drowned out, the tremolos come back and the music halts and widens out in a holding pattern led by the bass drum before it surges back. The drumming is immense and constantly thundering, pushing the guitars upwards to new melodic heights. Then it simmers down to acoustic guitars fingerpicking a melody. Then the ebb and flow of distortion is back carried along by a blasting rhythm section, it is fast and hard and immerses the vocals in its flow.
Now the compositions and the orchestration of the songs are set and the following songs blast forward and upward, with sudden reprieves of clear strumming and acoustic fingerpicking before the music surges back with yearning melodic high and low pitched tremolo guitars. The use of the rhythm section is unique and singular on this album: It seems more developed than on the previous records. Yes, it is tight, it is blasting and intensifies the whole flow. But in between there is some thunderous pounding on the bass drums as if to describe tumbling avalanches from the mountaintops as the guitars give the impressions of relentlessly howling blizzards which the desperate vocals try to penetrate and does so to high effect.
The atmosphere of the songs and album is full of longing desires and eerie temptations that such a majestic mountain can bring to the adventurous mountaineers. The tumultuous whirlwind of the music brings out the images of the towering mighty mountain with slopes and cliffs, sweeping cold winds with fierce blizzards. But also the raging beauty that exists there and in the music on this album. On ”Todesbiwak” (“Death Bivouac”) the strings fade in, both clean like a mandolin, and a distorted guitar rises until it disappears for an acoustic guitar to take over until the thunderous pounding bass drums drive refreshed riffs forward as everything is doused by the cymbals. Emerging fast tremolos form an enchanting melody until it pans out and is alone for a moment introducing the snarling screams of desperation as if hanging over the cliffs of the intense maelstrom of music. It dives forward with the blasting rhythm and the guitars’ intriguing tremolo solos undulating through the music until the counterpoint comes with the acoustic guitar accompanied by the bass drums. Then a new surge lifts the music forward driven by blast rhythm and hits on the tom-toms sprinkled by the lights from the cymbals as it turns into a crescendo and disappears.
Chilly sweeping winds open the album´s closer ”Alptraum” (“Nightmare”) before it morphs into a flow of distorted music dragging an acoustic guitar with it. The music turns into a nightmarish vortex with desperate vocals immersed in intense rhythm and riffs. The music flows forward with rolling bass drums and cymbals, the vocals sounding both angry and desperate amidst the avalanches. The music simmers down with elongated riffs before it takes a breath and is driven forward by high-pitched tremolo and diverse drumming, like a drum solo below the guitars. It ebbs and flows with the snarls of the vocals. The music widens out and only acoustic guitar is left with the ever-chilly blowing wind sweeping the mountainside as sampled voices are heard disappearing.
