Review Summary: Fear, Emptiness, Despair
Although “Fear, Emptiness, Despair” is the title of a Napalm Death album, it actually perfectly captures Coldworld’s psyche. Mastermind Georg Börner has translated these emotions into music since 2005 with numerous EPs and splits and two epic LP masterpieces “Melancholie2” and “Autumn”. Since his long play output is separated by near decades, it’s a genuinely special day when a Coldworld LP drops.
There’s a poignant mood that is immediately felt when a Coldworld album begins, an ominous fog descends and you can feel yourself starting to frown. This mood is deftly captured by the ambient opener “Leere” which translates the album’s visual art to another form, with distant maritime echoes behind gentle wailing horns.
Moving onto the album centrepiece “Soundtrack to Isolation” is definitive Coldworld with sweeping tremolo picking melodies bridging with strings and hazy clean vocal harmonies and haunting children’s playing sounds which to me is both heart-warming and heart breaking. It could be Soundtrack to Our Last Few Years where we struggled to various degrees with death, separation and loss. The melodies are strong and consistent and require repeat spins for maximum effect.
“Walz” is our welcome return to black metal wails to centre us before the clean vocal harmonies return and again mood over matter envelopes us. It’s like Börner is worn down by the world and only has the strength for a brief outburst before sadness becomes overwhelming. “We Are Doomed” begins with some cold crash cymbals and strings and DSBM trems dictate more emotional melodies. The song later evokes Gaahl’s Wyrd and Wayfarer’s atmoblack territory. The album is short on direct messaging but the palpable atmosphere is suffocating, which is tangibly felt in the poor soul drowning in the interlude track “Five”.
Börner is no chirpier later in the section, with “Wounds” continuing the slow march of guitars and strings. This song progresses into one of the better melodies in the album but fades out before its time. “Isolation Stagnation” is another ambient interlude but at this juncture the album could be better served by energy swelling rather than waning. It is a recurring observation throughout, wishing for more epic summits rather than wallowing in self-reflection.
There is a glimmer of hope though, in the final beautifully creative flourish of “Hymnus” which instrumentally builds with a sense of yearning and hope for inner peace. I’ve felt a continuing pull to this album to further explore its intricacies and whilst the melodies are here and the songs are here, “Isolation” hasn’t quite yet reached the Fear, Emptiness, Despair peaks of “Melancholie2” and “Autumn”. Not to say it won’t.
