Band:	ColdWorld
Album:	Melancholie²
Style:	Ambient black metal
Release date:	March 24, 2008
Guest review by:	Slayer666

01. A Dream Of A Dead Sun
02. Tortured By Solitude
03. Winterreise
04. Schmerzensschreie
05. Red Snow
06. Stille
07. Hymn To Eternal Frost
08. My Dead Bride
09. Escape

As someone who has a flat zero in musical talent and ability, my admiration for great musicians is all that greater. The ability to capture emotions, paint landscapes or portray seasons via instruments deserves respect even if the author is a self-contradicting, hypocritical, pretentious douchebag. By no means is the mastermind behind the one-man ColdWorld a douche, but even if he were, he would have to be the biggest a-hole on this planet for me not to worship him after hearing Melancholie².

Try to imagine taking the longest, loneliest walk on the snowiest, coldest winter day. Feel the smell of that fresh, perfectly white snow. Observe the flakes gently falling, carried by the icy cold breeze. Lead-heavy, grey skies above you, and the seemingly infinite white below you. Faint silhouettes in the distance and quiet voices calling you, urging you to keep moving when all you want to do is just drop in the snow and end it all... This gives a faint, incomplete idea about the journey that Melancholie² takes you on.

Preventing this review from turning into a cryptic piece of prose poetry, I'll explain what makes this album such a powerful atmosphere invoker. Melancholie² is a leaf originating from the tree we nowadays call ambient black metal. While one might argue that this particular style is tired and overcrowded by teenage bedroom "musicians", Melancholie² colossally towers above them all, not because of any brilliant innovations, but because of the near-perfect execution and overflowing passion that was put into every second of the album.

Extremely fuzzy guitars evoke the mood through lethargic, icy cold melodies, often followed by background keyboards giving the sound that extra drop in temperature and sometimes even taking the main spotlight. Shrieking vocals are buried deeper in the mix, treated as just another instrument, creating the illusion of whispering voices mentioned above. Even the mournful violin hops in occasionally, such as on the mind-blowing "Tortured by Solitude". Some completely ambient tracks performed by a single keyboard (somewhat similar to Burzum) like "Winterreise"are one of the crucial components of the continual chilling flow of the album. Finally, forgetting to mention separately the utter depression juggernaut, the brilliant opener and quite possibly most beautiful, stunning track "Hymn To Eternal Frost" (where the violin once more makes an appearance) would be a crime.

The only reason why I'm not giving Melancholie² a full 9, a score reserved only for the greatest, monumental achievements from any genre, is the final track which, while certainly not bad, is a rather poor way to close an album like this. After 8 tracks of oozing brilliance, I was expecting a colossal finisher but "Escape" just sounds bland and unconvincing compared to the rest.

Nonetheless, I can't stress how much I enjoyed this sonic portrait of winter and how much I recommend Melancholie² to all the fans
of similar music.