Sieghetnar - Bewußtseinserweiterung (2008)

The only music I've heard by these anonymous chaps before now is their debut, and I'm just going to come out and say that I'm not happy with the change between now and then. Verfallen & Verendet had a thick fuzzy grittiness to it that you could sink into; the vocals and guitars lent an immersive energy, and the synths were more than enough atmosphere. I can say none of these about Bewußtseinserweiterung. The sound has dried up, taking the mysterious depths away. The drums sound abysmal; a mix of insubstantial artificiality and sloppiness. The only concession to vocals comes at the end of “II,” with an interesting synth or vocoder that rises up through the song momentarily, but it in no way makes up for the missing blackened howls. The synths are generally low in the mix, failing to envelop or expand the songs. Their main significance seems to be as endings for the repetitive songs to fade off into, and even then they're only a couple of notes that are phased back and forth. Bewußtseinserweiterung delivers best on the final song, almost regaining the power of their earlier work with a bit more of a focused sound, but it really doesn't need to last for twenty minutes. And why the ten minutes of silence at the end?

I can see what they're going for on this album, but it's just not done well. I don't really understand how they went from the quality of their stellar debut to this. However, it looks like they have another release for this year, so I'll have to see how that turned out. Perhaps Bewußtseinserweiterung was an extra release attempting something new, or perhaps they merely stretched themselves too thin. Whatever the case, this album is most disappointing.

Verdict: Fail [2/5]