Review Summary: Creating a stellar atmosphere like no other album, Melancholie is Georg Börner’s epic atmospheric black metal creation.
Black metal is one of those genres I could just never find myself getting into. The staples of black metal: tremolo-picked guitars, blast beats, and shrieks, all felt like they were just adding to the noise and making the resulting product feel like one big, depressing mess. This was my mindset until this winter. I began to struggle with depression and my outlook on life became much bleaker than it had been previously. Coincedently, I found Coldworld’s
Melancholie at this time. A perfect channeling of the emotional turmoil I was going through, this album alone is the reason I was able to work into the genre I so long rejected. As I watched the snowfall pour down from the heavens outside this album grabbed me on an emotional level and became the soundtrack to my winter.
Starting with what impressed me the most, the atmosphere created by this record is second to none.
Melancholie succeeds at sounding haunting and bleak while simultaneously beautiful. Rather than sounding gimmicky like most comparable black metal projects, every arrangement on
Melancholie seems perfectly built to maximize its impact on the listener. The lush and vibrant string samples and keyboards perfectly compliment the dark guitar riffs and tortured shrieks and surprisingly effective muddy and lo-fi production, resulting in one of the most depressingly bleak atmospheres I’ve ever heard. Never before had a black metal album put me in the trance-like state this album seems to effortlessly create.
The vocal performance on this album is amongst the finest in the genre. George’s shriek is simply phenomenal. His scream is definitely in the higher register, yet strays away from the ear-piercingly high shrieks of found on albums such as
Dusk… and Her Embrace. He succeeds at sounding tortured and depressed enough for you to feel the agony he’s going through, yet remaining completely listenable for those of who aren’t die-hard black metal fans.
The instrumental work is also incredibly well done. The riffs feel perfectly created to help bring the dark atmosphere to a whole new level. The repetition of parts perfectly puts the listener in a trance while never feeling overtly boring or unnecessary. The drums, while incredibly simple, are unbelievably effective. Even though they typically hold up a simple slower beat or basic blast, they seem designed that way as opposed to sounding underdeveloped in comparison to rest of the instruments to take full advantage of
Melancholie’s slow and deliberate pace.
Overall,
Melancholie is simply phenomenal. From the flawlessly created atmosphere to the perfect instrumental and vocal performance, Georg Börner has created an album similar to what most would expect from a veteran making excellent albums for many years rather than his LP. If he can keep this up, Coldworld could easily become a force to be reckoned with inside the black metal universe. And I’m eagerly awaiting that day.
