Atronos - Erwachen LP

black wax

It was but the autumn of last year when ATRONOS released their celebrated debut album, Fehde, through the stronghold of PURITY THROUGH FIRE. Despite the seeming newness of the band, ATRONOS felt like old souls, and for good reason: mainman Henker is a prolific underground veteran whose current bands include labelmates AD MORTEM as well as Drudensang and Blodskut. Joining him was erstwhile MAVORIM / EISENKULT vocalist Baptist, and together they made Fehde an utterly invigorating attack of folkish black metal fury. Earworming to the Nth degree, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more powerful and professional iteration of modern roots-oriented German black metal than ATRONOS' debut album.

Keeping their swords aloft, ATRONOS return to the fray with an even-more-massive second album. Aptly titled Erwachen, ATRONOS' second full-length is an expansive, skyscraping clarion call to all pagan souls. Not for nothing is the final track titled "Transformation," for while the trio (EISENKULT drummer Valfor has joined the lineup) retain the melancholic / heroic melodicism of Fehde, Erwachen embarks upon an altogether-more-epic journey into classic '90s-rooted pagan black metal. Thus do such touchstones as Windir, Thyrfing, and Norway's Hades get integrated into ATRONOS' staunchly Teutonic foundation, but spit back out as a literally MASSIVE landscape of triumph and tragedy, endless forests and even-more-endless dreams. The layering of synth choirs is especially key here; with the more measured gait ATRONOS move at on Erwachen, so do the fog-thick swells of sound take their time to absorb the listener into their forgotten realms. As such, it's not surprising that the album comprises five songs in 41 minutes: the ideal makeup for maximum immersion. But lest one think that the trio are totally committed to taking their (epic) time, Henker and crew can still rabble-rouse with the best of their German brethren - but the final destination here is the throne of the old gods rather than the beer hall. Witness the glorious splendor of ATRONOS' Erwachen!

Side A
1. Was uns so schecklich hasst 06:36  
2. Alles geht dahin 05:51  
3. Tobsucht 08:01  
Side B
4. Erwache 11:02  
5. Transformation 08:47  
playing time 40:17