Band:	Eden Weint Im Grab
Album:	Geysterstunde II
Style:	Gothic metal
Release date:	August 29, 2014
A review by:	Windrider

01. Die Jenseitsflugmaschine
02. Nachtexpress Nach Nirgendwo
03. Mein Geysterhaftes Grammophon
04. Nachtsterben
05. Tanz Auf Dem Quija-Brett
06. Rad Der Reinkarnation
07. Wesen Aus Dem Nichts
08. Leuchtturm
09. Der Ewige Bergmann
10. Ein Wiegenlied In Angst-Moll
11. Radio Totenfunk
12. In Der Lichtferne
13. Seelenernte
14. Aurelia
15. Schattenwesen
16. Die Sage Von Der Weißen Frau
17. Somnambule

If my eight-year-old mp3-player's battery had died today on my way to work, I wouldn't even have been mad. I followed Eden Weint Im Grab from their very first album on, they were a promising newcomer in the German gothic metal scene and deserved praise in various magazines. Their first two albums are awesome and the poetic non-musical album Der Herbst Des Einsamen has a very strong personal meaning for me. I even liked their last real studio album entitled Geysterstunde I when others did not (it has some good and some bad songs on it). But with its follow up, the second part of Geysterstunde, I feel like the journey is finally over.

When the video for the opener "Die Jenseitsflugmaschine" was released, I was happy because it was good and sounded promising. Unfortunately I can now say that it's almost the only good song on the album. So, after getting it and listening to the first track, I soon put on my meanest what-the-fuck face when I heard the second one, "Nachtexpress Nach Nirgendwo". I still don't know what I'm supposed to do with this, dance to its country like rhythm or use it as a children's song? However, this story continues throughout the whole record. We may not talk of gothic metal here, rather some rock/pop with folk influences. The beloved harsh vocals have almost completely given in to weird clean singing, playful childish orchestral instruments turned the music into ridiculousness. There once were huge poetic themes dealing with death, nature, human weakness and despair, but now there's only standard ghost stories every child knows and that are not even the least bit spooky or atmospheric, due to the ridiculous stories and music. Voices on the phone, steps in the abandoned attic and dead people playing around us fill more than half of the songs, just uninteresting standard stories without a new twist and it's not even funny.

Eden Weint Im Grab used to live on lyrics and atmosphere, both are gone. Exactly one track, namely "Aurelia", resembles the old times when the music was gothic and good, yet it would have been a comparatively weak one on the first two albums. The only reason that the rating of this review didn't end up abysmal is the fact that some of the tracks like "Schattenwesen" or "Nachsterben" do well as mediocre rock/pop songs and the poems "Rad Der Reinkarnation" and "Somnambule" bring a nice Georg Trakl feeling. To compare this for all the non-German speaking people here, I always thought that Carach Angren made very good music, yet also without scary atmosphere like it should as a haunting ghost themed band. However, Geysterstunde II takes the cake in the category of ridiculous spooky ghost story attempts. I could cry myself to sleep on this loss. Ok, enough time wasted on this, I'm back to Traumtrophäen Toter Trauertänzer, Eden Weint Im Grab's best work and one of my all time favourite albums.