Der Weg Einer Freiheit is a relatively new band to the black metal scene, forming only two short years ago in 2008 in Germany. A year later in 2009 we saw the release of their self-titled debut album. Now this band isn't one of those bands that's trying to re-create the so-called "glory days" of black metal. What I mean by that is they're not trying to be something they're not by purposely having bad production and trying to make everything as kvlt as possible, like the black metal bands from the early 90's. What you'll find on this album is pretty clear production, trance inducing guitar riffs, a top notch vocalist, and an amazing atmosphere. As you can probably tell with that last statement, Der Weg Einer Freiheit goes for the more atmospheric and progressive style of black metal and I must say they're one of the most promising new bands I've heard from the genre. It's very good to hear a band with their own sound, especially with all the bands coming out nowadays that try to (like I mentioned earlier) re-create the early 90's style, which just simply cannot be revived.
First thing's first, and that's the most important part of the album, creating an atmosphere. Der Weg Einer Freiheir create their atmosphere mostly with the guitar riffs. You'll find that every riff you hear will create a very dark, very bleak atmosphere. There's not beauty to be found on this album. No acoustic guitar breaks or anything like that. Tremolo picking dominates the majority of this album and will keep you entertained and interested to hear what's coming next. Even though the band doesn't really switch up the riffs a lot of the time, they never sound stale and they keep it fresh. Even with the lack of variety in the riffs, the listener will keep coming back and listening to the album because the riffs are melodic and catchy enough to keep the interest. Another nice thing is that this band can create a great atmosphere without using a huge orchestra or anything like that. They can do it simply with their guitars.
The drums on this album are programmed by a drum machine. While the drumming is done by a drum machine, it's handled very well. You'll find a variety, ranging from blast beats to slower parts when the drums simply just keep the tempo of the song going to keeping the beat while the guitars take center stage to create the bleak atmosphere. Now vocally this album is also superb. The vocals aren't really anything new, especially if you're already a black metal fan. With that being said, this guy puts on one hell of a performance. You won't understand what he's saying, mostly because the lyrics aren't in English, but you can tell that this guy really means what he's screaming at you. His voice isn't extremely high-pitched, but also isn't as low-pitched as a death grunt, it's kind of right in the middle of the two. He doesn't sound too much different than Nocturno Culto did on Darkthrone's earlier black metal albums, which is a good thing.
Fans of atmospheric black metal, and just black metal in general owe it to yourselves to check this album out immediately. Der Weg Einer Freiheit is definitely one of the best up-and-coming bands in the black metal scene today. This is one hell of a debut album from a band that's going to be a forced to be reckoned with in the future and they deserve a lot of recognition. If you like early 90's black metal then you'll most likely still love this album because they pay homage to the classic bands while still staying true to themselves to create a behemoth of an album. It's also very listenable too for newcomers to the genre, clocking in at about 43 minutes with song lengths averaging about 6 minutes.
