Review Nordlys "Lichtglanz Finsternis"

So here it is, the long-awaited debut album from Nordlys, more than 30 years after the band was formed. But that doesn't mean anything; the greatest bands, such as Eternal Darkness from Sweden, took a similar amount of time to release their debut album, and Sadistic Intent still haven't managed to release an album to this day...

But I digress. Nordlys from Memmingen in Bavaria (which seems to be a real metal stronghold, especially in relation to the modest size of the city; just think of Nekrovault, Sacroscum, Khaos, and Niht, even though these bands are all based more or less on a core group of musicians), started out under the name Fjell, were called Pest and Die Schwarze Wut in the meantime, and never made it into the spotlight of the black metal underground like Lunar Aurora, Nagelfar, Secrets of the Moon, or Desaster.

INTERVIEW A HOAGASCHT / ARAN (EX-LUNAR AURORA)

 

A few days ago I saw an announcement on a social network about a band called A Hoagascht. There was an immediate connection to Bavarian black metal band Lunar Aurora latest work, and indeed it turned out to be an announcement of a live performance of this exact album. Aran, founding member of Lunar Aurora and composer of the awesome "Hoagascht" album, is the initiator and main driving force behind this issue and answered my questions.

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Hello Aran, I can still remember buying the Lunar Aurora debut “Weltengänger” shortly after it was released at Saturn record store in Cologne. That was almost 30 years ago. And strangely enough, I also remembered that I ordered the farewell album “Hoagascht” online during a visit to Augsburg in 2012. I've long forgotten how I got hold of the other albums... How quickly time flies - is that something you often realize with some regret?

In many situations in life, I actually tend to look ahead. When it comes to Lunar Aurora, many memories become blurred. Some remain, but many things also become vague. In general, I can answer that by saying that I only regret the fast or slow passage of time in a few situations.

INTERVIEW MIGHTIEST

"Especially the pre-concert evening we planned in a Freiburg brewery was a sensational meeting. A bunch of middle-aged men babbled about the bad old days over a few beers....genius!"
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Mightiest from Freiburg in the legendary Black Forest was founded in 1994 and I always liked the melodic-symphonic aspect of the band, which never became cheesy, which was often the case with many bands in the past. That is a kind of unique selling point, to play melodic-symphonic black metal, which is still rough, hard and unpolished. I can think of Emperor, with whom the band was often compared in the reviews of "Recreation of the shadowlands". Of course in the early interviews Burzum, Darkthrone and Mayhem were mentioned as influences, the early Dimmu Borgir with "For all Tid" or "Stormblast" certainly didn't pass the band without leaving traces, I think.

REVIEW MIGHTIEST / FUNERAL PROCESSION "OF DEATHFIRES, A TOMB & NIGHT WITHOUT END"

In september, Ván Records released a split release of two veteran German black metal bands. One is Mightiest from the south of Germany, the fabled dark Black Forest, the other is Funeral Procession from East Frisia in Lower Saxony. Both bands were founded in the mid-90s, both have released only one album each besides various EPs and split releases, Mightiest even needed 22 years until the release of their great debut album SinisTerra. But this doesn't have to mean anything, just think about the cult band Sadistic Intent, who haven't released an album since the distant year 1987 until today. Despite this long history and their first-class music, both bands - probably also due to the lack of album releases - could never reach the level of popularity of similarly started bands like Secrets of the moon or Lunar Aurora.

INTERVIEW MORTUUS INFRADAEMONI

"Alles ist vergänglich und mündet in der letzten großen Frage, dem ewigen Tod – gleichzeitig ist der Tod aber auch immer eine Tür zu etwas Anderem, Unbekanntem."  

Wie ich bereits in der Besprechung des neuen Albums (Review siehe hier) zum Ausdruck brachte, sind Mortuus Infradaemoni eine ganz besondere Band mit einer tiefschürfenden musikalischen Aura, die nun wirklich nicht alltäglich oder profan ist (um mal einen Querverweis zum Pseudonym eines meiner Interviewpartner zu bringen). Eben genau wie dieses Interview, ich danke der Band für die offenen Worte, die ausführlichen, interessanten musikalischen Empfehlungen und das Wort(ungetüm) des Jahres, siehe die Frage zu den sozialen Medien.

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Hallo, erst einmal Glückwunsch zum starken neuen Album „Inmortuos sum“. Als ich sah, dass Ihr ein neues Album am Start habt, war ich überrascht, ich hatte Mortuus Infradaemoni längst als nicht mehr existent angesehen, ich denke, so ging es einigen. Was passierte nach dem letzten Album „Imis Avernis“ von 2009, daß eine Band nach 13 Jahren noch mal mit einem neuen Album aufwartet ist ja nicht gerade die Regel…  

INTERVIEW MORTUUS INFRADAEMONI (ENGLISH)

"Everything is transient and ends in the last big question, eternal death - but at the same time death is always a door to something different, unknown."  

As I said in my review of the new album (see here), Mortuus Infradaemoni are a very special band with a profound musical aura that is really not ordinary or profane (to cross-reference the pseudonym of one of my interview partners). Just like this interview, I thank the band for the open words, the detailed, interesting musical recommendations and the word (monstrosity) of the year, see the question about social media.

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Hello, first of all congratulations on the strong new album "Inmortuos sum". When I saw that you have a new album out, I was surprised, I had long considered Mortuus Infradaemoni as no longer existing, I think it was the same for some others. What happened after the last album "Imis Avernis" from 2009, that a band comes up with a new album after 13 years is not exactly the rule...  

REVIEW MORTUUS INFRADAEMONI "INMORTUOS SUM"

These days I more or less got to know that Mortuus Infradaemoni have released a new, third album. Honestly, after the two previous albums from 2007 and 2009, I had long suspected the band in the eternal hunting grounds, so I was all the more pleased that the band still exists.

The new album called "Inmortuos sum" is released by Iron Bonehead Productions, after the two predecessors were released by Cold Dimensions, the label of former Lunar Aurora musician Andreas "Whyrd" Bauer. And there we are already at the right keyword, namely Lunar Aurora . The two protagonists behind Mortuus Infradaemoni, Nathaniel and Profanatitas are both ex- members of the legendary Lunar Aurora.   

REVIEW ORTUS "AUS DER TIEFE" (ENGLISH)

I already reviewed ORTUS from Rhineland-Palatinate with their debut EP called "Where shadows gather" (see HERE.) This was released in 2018, and in an interview I read that at least a part of the band takes a certain critical distance to the EP and sees this first release retrospectively more as the first steps of musical self-discovery. Well, be that as it may, I was thrilled at the time and still find this EP very good. This release was followed in 2019 by the "Forgotten Memories" EP, which was again very convincing.  

REVIEW ORTUS "AUS DER TIEFE"

ORTUS aus Rheinland-Pfalz hatte ich ja bereits mit ihrer Debüt-EP namens "Where shadows gather" besprochen (siehe HIER.) Diese erschien 2018, und in einem Interview las ich, das zumindest ein Teil der Band eine gewisse kritische Distanz zu der EP einnimmt und diese erste Veröffentlichung nun retrospektiv mehr als erste Schritte der musikalischen Selbstfindung sieht. Nun, wie dem auch sei, ich war damals begeistert und finde diese EP auch nach wie vor sehr gut. Nach dieser Veröffentlichung folgte dann 2019 die "Forgotten Memories"-EP, welche erneut sehr überzeugen konnte.  

REVIEW HYEMS "ANATOMIE DES SCHEITERNS"

German black metal outfit Hyems released their new album called "Anatomie des Scheiterns" (which means "anatomy of failure") on May 1st via MDD Records. I really was looking forward to the new record, because the predecessor "Devianz-dem Menschen ein Wolf" (which means "deviance-man is a wolf to man" aka homo homini lupus-you see, these German guys prefer using their native language for their lyrics, but more on that later), released in 2015, is a really great record which received too little attention. The band exists since 2000 and released after some demos three full-lengths and two EPs in all, including the new record.  

INTERVIEW NORDLYS

"Of course the glory old days are great to remember, it was a really magic time when the whole Black Metal thing started in the early nineties, musically and spiritually. " (A. /Nordlys)

When I heard about the fact about the re-creation of an gig which took place 20 years ago including NORDLYS, LUNAR AURORA, NAGELFAR and MIGHTIEST I decided that I had to visit this, even if I and my attendance had to travel to Freiburg / Black Forest, Southern Germany. For the first time I visited the "Crash"-Club, the dark vault cellar is predestined for black metal gigs. LUNAR AURORA and NAGELFAR  ceased to exist, so the line up was completed by KERMANIA and a project band called WELTENGÄNGER (named after LUNAR AURORAs debut album). The concert itself was a great experience (here you can see some pictures published by the local news portal), so some months after I decided to do an interview with A. from NORDLYS.

First of all: how did you experience The „Past is alive“ concert at the Crash in Freiburg with MIGHTIEST, KERMANIA and WELTENGÄNGER ? In my opinion (and my attencance felt the same) NORDLYS was the „strongest“ band on this evening. And how exactly did the idea of took shape, who had the inital idea ?

It was a great event and experience, we really appreciated the effort the guys from Mightiest, especially Oliver, put into making this possible and as enjoyable as possible, not only the gig itself but also everything around it. The initial idea came from Mightiest to re-create an event that I had organized 20 years ago in Bad Wörishofen with Lunar Aurora, Nagelfar, Mightiest and us. First plans were simply to meet up after all this years but the whole thing turned out a bit bigger. Great to hear you enjoyed the performance, it went surprisingly well in regard of us meeting up for rehearsing only a couple of times before the gig.