Klabautamann
Merkur

PILLS OF BLACK DEVELOPMENT (episode I)

I embraced the Klabautamann under rather fortuitous circumstances.

A rar file found by chance and downloaded by I don't know who on the hard drive, a bizarre moniker like a freestyler from the Bavarian prealps, and a photo circulating online, in which the members posed with smiles under a colorful umbrella (likely a woman's). Face-painting and blasphemous iconography? Not here. The result? Instant likeability.

''Merkur'', their third work from 24 months ago, isn’t one of those records that immediately imprints on your mind or that you can assess and appreciate from the first moments. Starting from a pale Black Metal platform, the Teutonic act builds its sound based on the venerable principles of the recent Enslaved (the ones from ''Vertebrae'' or ''Isa'', to be clear) and through the delirious insights of Fleurety from ''Department of Apocalyptic Affairs''. A fusion of styles and rhythms that completely confounds with its grandeur, developing now in Jazz/Fusion syncopations, now in broad instrumental glimpses with a Folk aftertaste, where acoustic guitars often nod to Blues and its desolate mood; all within the space of each single song.

What results is a constant sensation of flair, nonchalance, perhaps genius, certainly personality. Breathtaking.

Varied, versatile, and open to stylistic solutions that elude the canonical concept of Black, yet not succumbing to compromises, Klabautamann know how to create a kaleidoscope of moods that's highly refined, intriguing, and alternative to the classic clichés associated with the cold and violent orientation that the swarm of new "old-schoolers" imposes on us today (rarely yielding encouraging results for purchase), also thanks to a vocal timbre that corrodes like sandpaper on an open wound.

As mentioned, repeated listens are necessary to absorb a product like this ''Merkur'' (have a listen to the last part of the title track and then we can discuss). Of course, the Black accelerations are not missing (''When I Long for Life'' and particularly ''Herbsthauch''), with sinister screams and piercing guitars launched at high speed that know how to sprinkle a bit of genuine nastiness into the air; everything, however, is always very measured and rational (also thanks to a clean and decent production), as if imprisoned in structures that always foresee a reflective pause and do not give much to the blind fury of the most primitive Black Word (''Morn of Solace'' and ''Lurker in the Moonlight'' being the most indicative examples). The group's acumen in moving away from strictly Black territories is then celebrated in the splendid acoustic finale of ''Noatun'', with an elegant piano playing on the enchanting nocturnal landscapes that seem to evoke a bewitching lunar scene.  

Dynamic and experimental without ever becoming convoluted for its own sake, ''Merkur'' is a small, highly recommended gem, the explosion of the German duo's pure compositional talent after the good sensations they offered us with their debut ''Der Ort''. If you are searching for cerebral, empirical, and unconventional music (the comparison with Dodheimsgard comes naturally), this German proposal will suit you; for everyone else, it's a great opportunity to approach an evolutionary form of the genre that is ever so seductive.