ALBUM REVIEW: Akt 1: Ein Feuer Entfacht – Skratte
Germany’s black metal scene is saturated with hundreds of great acts, making it one of the more celebrated scenes in the world for extreme music. Naturally, the country has more than its fair share of hidden gems who, despite being utterly fantastic, sadly go overlooked. SKRATTE are definitely one of them. The one man act, formed in 2012, has a couple of demos and an EP under their belt, combining the more rabid parts of second wave Norwegian black metal with beautiful folk flourishes, creating music that is visceral and melodic in equal measure. The band’s debut album, Ein Feuer Entfacht, sees SKRATTE at its creative zenith, and also proves to be one of the stand out black metal albums of the year so far.
Ein Ruf… serves as a short, mostly acoustic piece with lots of melody that sets a great tone for the rest of the album, easing the listener into the record before launching into Im Nebel des Herbstes, a polished black metal offering which sees soaring leads clash with the coarse vocals incredibly well. The juxtaposition between the song’s grating qualities, coupled with clean guitar passages and chanted backing vocals, lends an epic, punchy sound to proceedings early on.
Das Erste Licht strips away many of the folky elements in favour of a darker, melancholic sound, with arid vocals and denser rhythms creating a brooding but powerful style that gives it an aggressive edge. …Im Verborgenen…, a brief instrumental interlude with great intricate guitar work and imaginative hooks proves to be a great prelude to Düsterheit, a song that takes the thicker guitar sound of Das Erste Licht and applies a razor sharp catchiness to it. It’s a brilliant, energetic piece of music that balances the fierce black metal at the core of the SKRATTE sound with grandiose chanting and solid riffing, resulting in a memorable, eclectic affair.
Der Gott In Mir makes use of fuller chords and varied vocals, something that adds a huge, dramatic feel to this particular track, with lively guitar flourishes adding a lighter sound to this cavernous, domineering number. Der Graue Geist maintains the focused, slightly rabid sound that has informed this album up until now, peppering jarring, chaotic motifs throughout for good measure, and really sees the lead guitars take centre stage, bringing in moments of minimalism along with delicate, dancing melodies that keep this song interesting, complementing the glorious, sprawling nature extremely well.
The change of pace provided by the introduction of acoustic guitars towards the end of the song helps diversify the sound even further, and cements this song as one of the more impressive on the album. Ein Feuer Entfacht, a slow burning, bombastic track, begins with haunting acoustics before lurching suddenly into by far one of the albums most visceral passages before once again morphing into the bleaker sound that the rest of the track is built around. The constant altering of the tempo and the musicianship on offer gives this an unpredictable, engrossing feel that keeps the listener enthralled.
Eines Irrlichts Letztes Glimmen sees the feral vocals, with their acidic intensity, clashing with the slick sound of the rest of the music. The vocal deliveries are arguably at their most expressive, ranging from bellicose shrieks to wraith-like whispers, and do a fantastic job of making an already inventive offering even more immersive, pushing the bands’ sound and style in a very different manner to earlier tracks on the record. Der Schlüssel, with equally emotive vocals a spartan approach to songwriting, exaggerates the music’s more atmospheric side, proving to be every bit as captivating as its predecessor, again illustrating just how a good vocal performance can elevate a good song to greatness. …Der Ferne, the third and final acoustic track, not only brings this albums sound full circle, but acts as a magnificent closing effort, setting it apart from many of the forgettable outros that many black metal bands conclude their records with.
There’s plenty of black metal records that fall firmly into the atmospheric camp of the genre that often fall completely short of being genuinely atmospheric. This is not one of them; the seamless mixing of the darker metal and folk elements works extremely well, and the excellent approach of the vocals and lead guitars make this a thoroughly engrossing album in a way that very few bands, established or underground, are able to achieve, a fact made even more impressive by the fact that this music was composed and recorded by a single person.
With SKRATTE absolutely solidifying and near perfecting their sound right off the bat with their first full length, it’s clear that with a few very minor tweaks, this band could, with more music in this vein, become one of black metal’s heavy hitters in the not too distant future.
Rating: 9/10
Akt 1: Ein Feuer Entfacht is out now via Northern Silence Productions.
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