Empeiria “The Ascent: Szenen Der Katharsis”
Empeiria is a new emerging musical entity that has been propagating and creating dark and aggressive tones since 2009. This impressive duo, who hail from Germany, are both shrouded with mystery and rely on their sulphuric tones and caustic and cutting melodies to convey their message. Simply known as π and η, which further perpetuates their mysterious nature of the unknown that allows them to focus more on their uncapped creativity.
Having set to release their debut full length album The Ascent: Szenen Der Katharsis on June 6th under the banner of Vendetta Records. This diabolical album is 43:53 minutes long of a sulfurous unapologetic black metal that corrodes over the span of seven amazing tracks. With not much being known of this duo, I'm looking forward to diving in.
Starting with the album art, we notice a darker atmosphere of a striking and classical inspired black metal image. Yet, it carries a distinct contemplative aura that aligns with the thematic focus of the band. With a scheme that is predominantly monochromatic, dominated by shades of grey, black and sepia tones with orange highlights to make the simplistic depiction pop. The scene is of a dark wood that breaks into a clearing leading to a castle atop a plateau within the distance engulfed in flames. Demonic entities can be seen torturing naked humans within the clearing, having some hanging from the trees. A mysterious cloaked onlooker stands watches within the foreground. This image perfectly depicts and compliments for me themes of existential dread, renewal and possibly a realization. As if the cloaked figure is on a journey and will take us through the black metal contained within. This further builds to the mysterious allure of the band and their vision I feel and fits perfectly.
The album opens with the track “I” and begins with the sound of a gusting wind. A heavy drum hits and resonates, leading into the sound of a church bell ringing. A haunting low choir-like chanting hymn picks up as the wind continues to blow with a few more pounds of a drum, creating a dark and atmospheric tone. This soon breaks into a raw simple chord progression and barrage of drums. The vocals soon come in with a caustic and corrosive tone. Hush tones and fry screams carried across melodic guitar riffs. Short and to the point before leading right into the second track “II”. that begins with an aggressive slam riff that leads into some traditional raw and sulphuric tones. An interesting element is the choral chants that resonate amongst the furious overtures, giving a more indepth and dynamic element.
Remaining amongst the boundaries of Black Metal yet drawing influences heavily from Scandinavian metal, Empeiria does a fantastic job of creating a cold, dark atmosphere of raw Black Metal. The tones blend perfectly and help to portray their artistic vision. The melodic elements that carry through the otherwise corrosive and brutal tone. With relentless blast beats, a frenzy of double kicks that carry behind the rawness and choral hymn like chants that peak in from time to time help build depth and a sense of existential gloom.
From what I gathered so far, The Ascent: Szenen Der Katharsis is a tripartite concept album. It traces the journey of a protagonist lyrically through three emotional stages. The beginning is tormenting doubts and guilt that lead into a growing confidence. This can then be followed by an existential realization or awareness. This possibly aims as a philosophical epiphany and renewal rather than that of a destructive nature. It's looking at things through an existential objective lens and is done so musically.
“V” carries on with that same tone and builds with some aggressive chord progressions and blast beats. Though still quite raw, this instrumental track holds some catchy tones. Having fallen into the beginning of the second emotional stage I feel, it is only fitting that it remains instrumental. If you hear the tonality, it's more of a quickened tempo that can be symbolized as a hopeful realization or confidence.
Closing off this amazing album comes the beautiful acoustic classical influenced start of “VII”. The final stage of emotion, the realization. This classical element soon breaks into the raw tones that carry choral singing. Classical elements resonate within the undertones as the heavy melodic chord progressions tie it all together. This track plays out in length and leads into multiple tones and time signatures. As the track begins to fade out, it quickly shifts back into a melodic and dark sounding classical tonality. A fitting end to an amazing album.
The Ascent: Szenen Der Katharsis has some unique and fantastic elements and tones that blend well together. The emotional journey portrayed here is artistically creative and impressive. I personally enjoyed this album. The sulfurous tones blended with the melodic and often raw aspects pull you in and make for a great listen. The choral chants, however, could use a bit more work in the tonality but otherwise work. Some of the vocal levels were a tad off at times when the slower vocals came in as well. Other than this, it was an amazing album and I for one am looking forward to hearing more of Empeiria. This is an album that I would recommend.
Score: 8.5 /10
