It's been a few years since their last offering, so I'm really excited for this one. Opening track is a big grower and I love it now, but I can't help but miss the more shrill harsh vocals they usually had (on tracks like "Mensur" or "Haut und Knochen" e.g.)

If not for the chanting style vocals, this would sound a lot like any other slightly melodic black metal album of the past 30 years. The production is tight, the instrumentation is fine, and everything follows the expected formula. Music doesn't require innovation to be enjoyable, but when you streamline your sound and move away from what made you stand out in the crowd, it seems counter-productive.

Some of the vocal experimentation is appreciated, though. I think more of that would have distracted from what can otherwise only be considered as background black metal.

Like I expected it's really... meh. There's definitely some good on here and the songs individually are good too, maybe a bit boring.

What's interesting is that Porta Nigra has always been this eccentric band writing about arrogant af people. Be it the turn of the 19th century full of its excesses or the "Great" War, waged by self obsessed monarchs. And in fitting with that theme, I think Das Rad des Ixion is the best track on here in terms of lyricism, where Ixion literally complains that the world should revolve around him.

Production all around is a bit too clean for this black metal approach imo... Though I think Schöpfungswut is the exact right amount of monumental. Gives creation vibes alright.

The rest is a half/half of their usual theme and fairly boring heaven/hell ideas imo. And I think that barrier holds back the writing the most. If you have a standard theme that doesn't particularly suit your style, you end up making a standard album that doesn't particularly suit your style. At least if your music is so focused on the writing as Porta Nigra's is.

I sometimes come back to this just for the lyricism. Porta Nigra just have a way with words. Schöpfungswut (the song) in particular is full of "omg that's a badass line". Of course all of that gets lost when you don't speak the language. But the same was true for the former 2 albums. Just those two also were quirky and interesting, meanwhile this is super standard meloblack. I think it's still really worthwhile and I like that they made it. Not super disappointed. Just a bit of a quirky outlier record for being so much less of a quirky outlier in the more global black metal landscape.