German really does make for great-sounding lyrics when sung, it just has a hard edge and is perfect for metal, a lot like English. I can't understand a damn word of it, but it sounds cool. Grabunhold have a classic black metal sound and image, and apparently a fascination with Tolkien, which is also on-brand for black metal. The production is good, but has a nice loud, raw edge to it, like every instrument is pushed a little too far. This is fine. I don't want modern production values to invade black metal too much, it should at least have a fuzzy edge like this. Don't get me wrong, this is quite well-recorded - it just has that "something" that black metal needs. The vocals are more mid-ranged than high, which is perfect for this material. The vocals are quite powerful and the singer knows when to shut up and just let the music do all the work. The riffs alternate between quite aggressive and melodic, and constitute a nice mix of the two, as most good black metal seems to do. I only wish I had some English translations of the lyrics since I also enjoy Tolkien and would like to see what has so inspired this band. Perhaps they're included in the physical copy, I hope they are.
