Von Branden – Scherben (2007)
In 2007 von Branden have released their debut album “Scherben”. The band is comprised of Solarian von Branden who formed and named the band and is the lead vocalist,Vestriz von Mesopotamien who plays the guitars, bass, and does some background vocals and Arminius von Theesfeld on drums. The members have all come up with pseudonyms because they did not want their music to be associated with some of their former bands. I had never heard of this combo before yesterday, when I stumbled over their album in my local CD shop. Since I have always been into melodic black, gothic and doom metal bands the cover intrigued me and so I decided to buy the record on a whim. The first track was exactly what I had hoped for: it starts out with a string solo and when the guitars and vocals join in I felt strongly reminded of bands like My Dying Bride and Dornenreich. Of course you have to keep in mind that this is a debut album and so there is a lot of experimenting with different styles. Songs like “Behind the Rain” or “Elend” are some of the finest melodic black and doom metal songs I have heard in a long time, while “Ignoranzkultur”, “Vergessen” and “Consuming Life” are typical gothic metal songs with Nomi Helfensteller (of Blue Curtain ) as the female guest vocalist. It is difficult for me to give a rating because the songs are so very different from each other. The genre could be best described as gothic black and doom metal with jazz influences. To get a taste of their music you can check out their myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/vonbranden
Just let me say this: if you don’t like female vocals or if you don’t like gothic metal then you will only like 3 or maybe 4 songs of the album, but if you like complex compositions with a lot of change and a very deep emotional background then you should definitely have a look at von Branden. To enjoy this record it is probably necessary to listen to it several times, to let it unfold its potential.
7/10
cnspiracy
MFG presents: REVIEWS 