Bergrizen – Die Falle
Release Date: 21st December 2023
Label: Purity Through Fire
Bandcamp
Genre: Black Metal, Symphonic, Atmospheric.
FFO: Drudkh, Mgła, Taake.
Review By: Rick Farley
It’s always a tough task to review an album near the final days of December, almost everyone’s years end list have already been decided and posted on numerous media sites. So typically, most bands in the month of December are passed over or plain get lost in the musical void, regardless of if they’re good or bad. That should not be the case here, and I urge everyone to pause on preparing for 2024 and splendour in the dark beauty of this black metal offering.
For fifteen years, Bergrizen have been at the forefront of the new wave of Ukrainian black metal, combining ambient dark folk with sorrowful yet fierce black metal. On the bands highly anticipated seventh album Die Falle released by Purity Through Fire on December 21st, 2023, is a full on onslaught of darkness that’s a little lighter on the folk and heavier on the black. Born from strife, Die Falle is the direct result from the effects of the war in their country. Bergrizen used this horrific inspiration, delivering their most immediate and organic record to date.
The album started its life cycle during the late summer of 2021, but due to the turmoil in Ukraine at the time, worked was forced to stop by the winter of 2022. Amongst all the tribulations, Myrd’raal the sole composer of Bergrizen also fell ill concerning his lungs, and the vocals on the album were an uncertainty. The other session/live members were spending all their money, energy, and time volunteering to help their friends and soldiers who were on the frontline.
“It’s exceedingly difficult to write music when the missiles are flying over your head and smashing buildings on the streets. It’s difficult when you are sitting without electricity twelve hours per day, or sometimes even more than twenty-four hours. We weren’t sure that we would be able to finish Die Falle, but we wanted to say something about the situation on our country through music.”
This was stated by Myrd’raal in the press release. Personally, I felt like it was necessary to include this, simply because the magnitude of understanding how this record came to fruition makes it all the more authentic and enjoyable.
Fast-forward to winter of 2023, and we’re being gifted with one last chilling burst of atmospheric, melancholic, and ferocious black metal. Frosty and fiery, the albums intensity shines through symphonic movements, shimmering, twisty guitars, erupting contrast in moods and varied harsh vocals raging from horrifying shrills to manic growls. Die Falle feels emotionally charged from every little dark crevasse its sharp claws can tear through. Ich Vergebe Nicht twists and turns with stomach churning potency that tells its story through melodic savagery. The pounding blast beats, slithering snake like guitars and moody violins of Der Rituelle Mord (Öffnung Der Tore) all create an intoxicating soundscape of violence mixed with wraith and dark yearning.
Five tracks at forty-one minutes, Die Falle never once seems bloated or lost for musical creativity. Beautiful, introspective, bleak, and agonizingly ferocious basically sums it up. I’m happy to say this is a hell of an album to end 2023 with.
(4 / 5)
