Sturmgeist - Manifesto Futurista (2009)

Having enjoyed the Sturmgeist debut Meister Mephisto, and to a lesser extent its follow-up Über, I was jazzed that Cornelius was putting together another. Though the style here is not as varied or wild as his main band Solefald, Sturmgeist does bark up the same tree in that it offers a fresh approach to a tired genre, that of thrash influenced black metal. Perhaps it is the selection of chords or the mechanical sheen to the composition, but Sturmgeist is both a follower and breaker of traditions.

"Monolith" is a strong beginning, with streams of bleeding chords and a grinding low structure not unlike a blackened Kreator. "Himmelen Faller" is a steady but average track, followed by the melodic, thrashing of "The Siegfried Order", which is one of the better songs on the album. Good distorted basslines pummel below the celebretory, epic repetition of the guitar chords. "Skyggestrykerne" is a mediocre melodic black metal track, and "Verdun" doesn't fare much better. In fact the more interesting material that comprises the remainder of this album are the odd men out, like the slumbering "Elegie D'une Modernite Meurtriere", the pompous interlude "Ritorno Glorioso" and the dreary rock of "Let Us Be the Suns of Our Time".

Manifesto Futurista has a cruel bite to the guitars and vocals which sounds great, even when the riffs themselves are weak. I really like the retro vibe created by this band, one harkens back aesthetically to the Industrial Revolution and the later Futurism of the early 20th century; and the unknown, glorious future our forebears must have simultaneously feared and strived towards. Sturmgeist is a very different concept for a black/thrash band, with an enormous potential, but I'm not sure this album is the one to fully realize that. Some of the songs here are good, but they alternate with forgettable tracks that offer little to the theme, and I didn't enjoy this as much as the previous albums.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

http://www.myspace.com/sturmbruderschaft