ALBUM REVIEW: Weibermacht – Folterkammer
New York’s FOLTERKAMMER emerged almost fully formed on their first album – the bleakly bombastic Die Lederpredigt – bringing together haunting gothic orchestration and harsh yet punchy black metal to create a record that approached symphonic black metal in an interesting way that was far removed from the sort of polished, near sterile sound of many modern bands in the same style. The band’s latest album, Weibermacht, with its crisp and pristine production, sheds a lot of the claustrophobic qualities of their debut, but boasts a marked shift towards a much more imaginative and eclectic style which makes their already impressive brand of black metal even more beguiling.
Anno Domina is an incredibly tight, steady piece of second wave black metal with contrasting operatic vocals and haunting keyboards that starts things off in suitably grandiose fashion. The caustic undercurrent of the guitars, drums and bass creates a dark, brooding sound, with the vocals and keys that are layered over the top shifting the music into much more epic territory, with only a few sinister snarls matching up with the intensity at the song’s heart as the band develop a style that is bleak, vicious and gothic in equal measure. Leck Mich! leans prominently into the sombre melodicism and muscular rhythms that made the opener so impressive, with the subdued backdrop allowing the angelic qualities of both the lead and backing vocals to take centre stage. The acidic rasp that accompanies the faster, more visceral moments fits effortlessly with the music that backs them, with the Hammond organ-esque keyboards adding an air of 70s occult rock into the mix.
Die Unterwerfung sees the dramatic elements pushed further to the forefront, with spoken word vocals, acoustic guitars and harpsichord drawing the listener in before the relentless assault of dissonant guitars and frenetic drums ratchets the aggression up significantly. Meanwhile, the crystalline vocals rise above this impenetrable murk and anchor the music in something far lighter, standing out against the feral blackened components extremely well. The sprawling, cinematic Küss Mir Die Füsse! embraces a cavernous sound, built around huge, melancholic chords, resonant bass and percussive drums, once again beginning at a relatively reserved tempo before edging towards a forceful and biting sound, with only the vocals injecting any brightness into the gloomy and opaque musicianship. It’s a song that alters and incorporates a variety of imaginative hooks as it progresses, making the most of the longer form to explore a more adventurous style.
Algolagnia, with its tar-thick basslines and thunderous drums opting for an almost sludge sound, showcases a swaggering, playful slab of quite experimental extremity, with the vocal performances especially being amongst the most demented and unpredictable on the whole album, almost entirely shedding the soaring soprano in favour of unhinged barks and shrieks which further add to the searing aspect of this song. Herrin Der Schwerter continues with this discordant formula but applies a focused approach to the musicianship, striking a balance between the seething avant-garde sections of the previous track and the old school black metal touches that are peppered throughout this album, with the addition of dense, animalistic gutturals adding another menacing layer to an already ferocious and belligerent sound.
Das Peitschengedicht is every bit as impactful as the previous two offerings, but returns to a slower pace and chunkier guitar sound, with cacophonous bursts hinting at the vitriolic songs that preceded it, whilst allowing the bombastic parts of the music, in particular the vocals and keyboards, to play a bigger role in this song’s sound and thus close out the album proper with a slab of weighty, venom-soaked extreme metal with a beguiling, symphonic side. The inclusion of Venus In Furs, a powerful cover of one of THE VELVET UNDERGROUND‘s most famous songs, captures the raw and grimy charm of the original, whilst adding the band’s own, meatier tone and progressive flourishes in order to reimagine this already dark piece of music in an imposing style. It’s a great nod not only to FOLTERKAMMER‘s New York roots, but also their underlying BDSM themes, slotting into the album well and serving as a great exclamation point for this to conclude on.
There is a marked change in Weibermacht, especially when directly compared with the band’s debut; not only has the production advanced away from the rawness and murky ambience of Die Lederpredigt, but in the three-and-a-half years since that album was released, it’s clear that a more chaotic, layered and adventurous approach has been applied to FOLTERKAMMER‘s songwriting, with each of these eight songs feeling distinct from each other, standing out by virtue of their own merits, rather than sticking to the leaner, starker formula of their debut, which, although it was great in its own right, did have a tendency to fall back on standard black metal tropes for many of its tracks. Normally, a slicker mix sucks all the life out of a black metal record, but here the sharper edge of the production allows some of the subtle elements to be more apparent, creating a much more nuanced and expansive sound that makes this all the more enthralling.
Rating: 8/10
Weibermacht is out now via Century Media Records.
Like FOLTERKAMMER on Facebook.