I am being very disingenuous by bringing up Herzog when I only mean one specific film of his, saved from being the only movie of his that I've seen by the fact that he also did a Nosferatu adaptation that I was curious about, but that said Aguirre, The Wrath Of God is an all-time classic movie, without which I probably wouldn't have been aware of the crazy tale that is it based on. Antrisch have some things in common with Herzog: German origin, good at creating desolate atmospheres, and an interest in the tale of Lope de Aguirre. And for a band whose entire existence so far has been conceptual "Expedition" album themed around "the heights of the world and the depths of man", that is one hell of a tale to base your next album on.
Those who remember the Clandestine Cuts edition where we first covered Antrisch and my review of their previous record might've gotten used to associating their music with a more icy atmosphere. You know, something that black metal was tailor made for. Transporting the entire tale to the Amazon does create a bit of a disconnect between the atmosphere that the music evokes and the setting that the tale is trying to evoke, something that the language barrier isn't very helpful with.
So on a surface level, it is quite hard to get the setting from the music, but like I've said in my previous review, a lot of non-textual cues about the vibe of the story come merely from the vocal performance, as manic and confident as the men who can make birds drop dead from the trees if they so desire. Combine that with moments like the Spanish narration interlude and the occasional percussive / acoustic / cinematic moments that do at least some of the work of not making Expedition III : Renitenzpfad sound icy, and elements like that become more obvious with every listen. Aside from making the story be felt rather than understood through the music, Antrisch are just really good at making black metal that is both atmospheric and aggressive.
There's an atmospheric quality to the music, aside from the elements that are clearly there for story immersion, even at its most straight-forward the black metal of Antrisch is evocative. But it's also a black metal that doesn't go for that repetition-focused hypnotizing kind of black metal. A lot of that is due to how not-monotonous sounding the cadence of vocalist Maurice Wilson is, but the instrumental songwriting too pushes riffs forward without relying on their hypnotizing nature but rather on the mix of their aggression and their melodies, helped by the fact that it is the much too rare case of black metal with a bass performance that isn't just for support.
Whoever follows Antrisch and Expedition III : Renitenzpfad, will win untold riches. Whoever deserts...
