EMPYRIUM – At Wintersunset…

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8.5

• Bands:
  EMPYRIUM
• Duration: 00:48:56
• Available from:
• Label:

• Prophecy Productions

If we had to choose an album that describes in music the sound of a road through the woods in the November twilight, Empyrium's first work would be an effective example.
“A Wintersunset…” in fact embodies the shadowed charm of landscapes full of melancholic reflexivity, mixed with that rough beauty of freshly extracted rough gems, struck by light for the first time.

Released in 1996, this work symbolically marks the birth of the German Prophecy Productions, a historic label that has in its heart precisely that search for leaden sounds and natural contemplation; the same ones capable of pushing the Markus Stock/Andreas Bach duo into the R+A Studio in Münnerstadt, Bavaria, to record fifty minutes of poignant music, halfway between certain woodland folk, spleen, romantic lyricism and sudden black-scented scratches.
These characteristics constitute a fertile humus for many groups that in that same period were working to build – each with their own personality – new, different paths capable of infinite ramifications: if perhaps “Kveldssanger” by Ulver constitutes one of the most immediate comparisons for research between musical traditions and sylvan darkness, the contemporary works of Opeth (“Morningrise”), Anathema (“Eternity”) and My Dying Bride (“Like Gods of the Sun”) can be cited to highlight a similar path in terms of internal investigation and construction of a sound which, although extreme, works to weave a varied melodic taste to it, while fellow countrymen Lunar Aurora declined those same woods and that same sensitivity with the filter of pure black metal, debuting with “Weltengänger”.
At a perhaps less immediate level in terms of comparison, we can however see that, always remaining on these coordinates, in 1996 Borknagar's self-titled debut was released (in which however the references to uncontaminated natural environments play an important role), “Thriarchy Of The Lost Lovers” by Rotting Christ, where the Greek band begins to shape a unicum between Hellenic black metal and melodic/symphonic taste, Moonspell found definitive consecration in gothic pantheon with “Irreligious” and Type 0 Negative released the beautiful “October Rust”, which has few equals in terms of melancholic decadence.
This rapid and heterogeneous overview aims to highlight how Empyrium's debut does not undermine the fate of metal as a whole with explosive force: on the contrary, it paints – defining it – with autumnal colors a panorama where this music meets other scenarios, not necessarily extreme, and is transformed into a new and unprecedented landscape not by contrast but by assimilation. Here the mourning and introspection of funeral doom meet progressive experiences, bringing to light both the seeds of the sylvan neofolk to come, as well as the darker ones, close to the harshest and most biting black (from which, for example, groups like Agalloch would then take their starting point).

Unlike the other works mentioned, in fact, “A Wintersunset…” brings with it above all the ode to the beauty of nature, and constitutes a canticle of it full of love and suggestions (as also declared by the musicians themselves at the time) with an old-fashioned romanticism, if we like, entirely German: the result is a moving celebration, with almost reverent features – we challenge you to listen to the double “The Yearning”/”Autumn Gray Views” with dry eyes.
This celebration starts from the delicate piano refrain of “Moonromanticism” (programmatic already from the title) and then develops into a misty blanket of flutes, tambourines and synthesizers, close, in terms of evocative power and contrast with the harsher vocals/sounds, to some solutions explored by Summoning during their career.
Listening to this album today is a particular experience: if on the one hand the production now sounds dated compared to current standards, it is at the same time also thanks to it that one can appreciate the peculiar elements of a similar work: the balance between moments in which the epic quality shines in the guitar solos, cloaked in elusive doom sadness, with the keyboards/synths punctuating the pace, as in the long, beautiful suite “Ordain'd to Thee” (without which we probably wouldn't have the Caladan Brood as we know them today, for example), and those in which the music becomes rarer, gathering in a suspended atmosphere, with almost dreamlike contours, as happens in the final “A Gentle Grieving Farewell Kiss”.
Markus' baritone voice, which will characterize the DNA of Empyrium so much over time, is already solemn, intense both in the whispers and in the almost recited parts or in the screaming ones, but always in balance with the rest of the sound framework built song after song, together with careful guitar work, a rhythm section on the piece when needed and able to suspend the rides when the song heads down more atmospheric paths.
The two musicians then worked, album after album, to refine or deepen the path begun here (listen to “Weiland” in this regard), with a class and inspiration capable of giving the world, even after many years, pearls such as “Turn Of The Tides” (more aimed at scanning the changing tides of the world with a collected gaze) or the latest, exceptional “Über den Sternen” (from 2021).

“A Wintersunset…” remains a wonderful album for its evocative strength and maturity, for its rough gem imperfections and the emotionality that the two musicians (with the contribution of Nadine Mölter on flutes, a regular guest also in the band's future) were able to convey with each musical instrument: a declaration of love for nature written in the language of German autumn/winter that moves and excites regardless of the passing of the years.