ALBUM REVIEW: Heimatspuk – Mosaic
There is certainly a mystical, inspirational quality to Thuringia. The central German state is known as “The Green Heart of Germany” for its broad, dense forests. It also produces some of Germany’s most evocative and sinister bands. Keen to carry on this tradition is MOSAIC, the altar ego of avant-garde master Martin Van Valkenstijn. He has recently released Heimatspuk, the follow-up to his acclaimed debut, 2019’s Secret Ambrosian Fire, promising a return to the project’s black metal roots.
Wir Sind Geister is your first glimpse of the album’s deeply avant-garde nature. There is a streak of black metal to this, but it is also heavily steeped in murky folk and creepy atmosphere. It’s a soundtrack to an impossibly bleak walpurgisnacht. It’s a spluttering canopy of strange, folkish, half-remembered weirdnesses. Die Alte Straße plays like some kind of bizarre, swirling, acid-laced excursion through pleasant meadows. There is a strange underlay of threat though; this is not a comfortable trip, it is one that balances on a knife-edge and could really go either way at a moment’s notice.
In Teufelsberg, the aforementioned black metal streak comes to the fore with a piercing howl, an all-encompassing wave of strangely melodic bleakness that is more than a little reminiscent of URFAUST’s early material. This is not your usual corpse-painted bludgeoning, it is a far more subtly arranged affair, but by no means is it any less murky or threatening. Providing a sharp change of direction is Hullefraansnacht, which can best be described as “music to perpetrate strange, ritualistic misdeeds in the dead of night by”. It’s an intensely unnerving slice of dark folk, laden with grave whispers and thick, worrying atmosphere.
Blutnelke has a very definite bop to it, which can often be a hallmark of quality amongst the more avant-garde echelons of black metal – you know it’s good if you could almost dance to it. Or, at the very least, writhe upon the ground next to a sacrificial pyre to it. The vocals deserve their own mention here also, as they are tremendously varied and executed with panache, almost becoming the focal point of the music. Performing a complete one-eighty we find Der Köhlerknecht. This is one of the more unorthodox offerings on Heimatspuk, being largely made up of throaty druidic vocalisations, samples and what sounds like windchimes. It’s an interesting inclusion, one that very definitely grounds the atmosphere back into its “lost in the dark woods of Thuringia” vibe.
Doing yet another complete one-eighty and thereby returning us back to the original direction, Nordwaldrauch is just about the most straightforward black metal track on the album. It’s a lengthy shard of ice-rimed tremolo clinging to a shuddering skeleton of rolling double kicks. It is of course broken up by chugging and overlaid with yet more of Van Valkenstijn’s spectrum of vocals, everything from harrowing wails to low, mournful howls. It could well be the standout track on Heimatspuk, and shows that while MOSAIC is clearly a project about pushing the limits of their genre, when they attempt a run at something slightly more straight-laced, they more than pull it out of the bag.
Heilstatt sits in a similar vein to its predecessor in a kind of mid-paced haze of chest-beating bombast. This is only furthered in the tremendous Unterhulz Zoubar, which is probably the fastest song present, a coiling mesh of misanthropic tremolo riffs and simple but unflinching drum work, all absolutely drenched in brash swagger. The CD, tape and digital versions of Heimatspuk will receive a bonus track named Tief Verschneit Die Ganze Welt. In a word, it is icy. It’s a thoroughly chilling moment upon which to reflect. After the triptych salvo that has preceded it, here we find a moment’s respite. Sit here by the fire for but a moment traveller, reflect on all you have seen in these darkest and strangest of woods.
Overall, Heimatspuk is phenomenal. If you prefer your black metal to be completely straightforward, devilry-obsessed blastbeating insanity, then this one is not for you. If you can hack a bit of subtlety though and can appreciate a highbrow philosophical concept expressed through the murk and mire of dark, folk-inspired evil, then this will likely occupy pride of place on your turntable for weeks to come.
Rating: 9/10
Heimatspuk is out now via Eisenwald.
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