Empyrium - A Wintersunset... (1996)

Empyrium came into existence back in 1994 in Bavaria, Germany and a year later the duo of Markus Stock and Andreas Bach created the demo tape, '...der wie ein Blitz vom Himmel fiel...,' which was followed a year later by this full-length debut, 'A Wintersunset...'

A Wintersunset is a strange and unique offering of dark doomy symphonic metal solely dedicated and inspired by the members love for Mother Earth's and all of her creations within nature. Although the Norwegians often spoke of it through their lyrics and bands like Agalloch and Wolves in the Throne Room made it trendy through photos, I believe Empyrium was probably one of the first to fully embrace it through their lyrics, covers and photos.

But, anyway, A Wintersunset's sound is a journey through slow to mid-paced heavily synthesized doom metal with both low baritone operatic-ish male vocals as well as rasping black metal screams. The recording has an incredibly atmospheric sound overall and is deeply woven with mournful tunes of pantheistic pride and romantic yearning and loss.

Andreas Bach's synth work is strong throughout the entire record and although it doesn't differ that much it gives the album an ethereal vibe unlike anything else out there. It is hard to describe though as it doesn't sound dark at all, but rather just full of melancholy, longing and some sort of strange majestic qualities at times too. Markus Stock handles the remaining instruments, which include; electric guitars, acoustic guitars, bass, drums and vocals, while session member Nadine Mölter adds some very brief flute work. Stock's baritone operatic vocals will be hit or miss with most folks as they are quite different and they do dominate over the raspy somewhat typical black metal screams, but I suppose I've listened to this album enough over the past several years that I've just gotten used to it all. Unfortunately the production losses a lot of his input as the guitar, bass and drums are often overshadowed by the synths and vocals, though their brilliance does manage to poke through here and there.

'A Wintersunset...' probably isn't the best Empyrium record, but I enjoy it for what it is and its unique qualities too, which no doubt inspired tons of other bands. The bands follow-up a year later, 'Songs of Moors and Misty Fields' is probably the true highlight of their career as the synths were toned down considerably and the issues with the production were fixed, but then again the bands last two neo folk/acoustic records are absolutely brilliant as well. So, its a bit hard to pinpoint Empyrium's career as all four albums sound different and although the band quit in 2002 they recently reformed with the possibilities of a full-length on the sunny horizon.