Warthur Having really enjoyed Where the Corpses Sink Forever I thought I'd delve into the Carach Angren back catalogue, but Death Came Through a Phantom Ship doesn't quite hit the spot for me in the same way the followup did. It's not that any one particular aspect of the band's black metal take on King Diamond theatricism falls down badly this time around - it's just that a wide range of different factors show a little room for improvement and perform just a little less well than they did on the next album, and the net result of all these little setbacks ultimately hurts the album.

The production, for instance, is a little less good this time around (the mix of the instruments, in particular, isn't great), which is problematic for the style of symphonic black metal these guys are going for, and the instrumental performances interest me less - in particular, Ardek's keyboard work this time around seems rather too cheesy for my tastes. It's not an incompetent release and there's still stuff to enjoy here, but for my part I'd rather just give Where the Corpses Sink Forever another spin.

adg211288 Where The Corpses Sink Forever is the third album by Dutch symphonic black metal act Carach Angren. Or maybe that should be theatrical black metal, because despite the band’s symphonic leanings theatrical black metal describes their music hell of a lot better than anything else. Like with the group’s two prior releases Lammendam (2008) and Death Came Through a Phantom Ship (2010) Where The Corpses Sink Forever is a concept album. While many bands do concept albums well enough Carach Angren are contenders for the crown of kings of the concept album because of the theatrical way that they deliver their music. Where The Corpses Sink Forever further cements their claim on that crown as their most theatrical release to date.

While previous album Death Came Through a Phantom Ship could be considered theatrical, with the keyboards of Ardek creating perfectly eerie symphonic sounds for the story, Where The Corpses Sink Forever has taken the theatrics up to a whole new level. The music is dramatic, at times epic, at others darkly eerie, and all things considered the album has a very different feel to it than its predecessor. It feels like a stage play with a symphonic black metal backing. The music fits the equally dark lyrical theme and it definitely helps that frontman Seregor has one of the most easily distinguishable growling styles so it’s easy to follow the lyrics of each track and get a rough gist of what is going on. Right from the suitably creepy intro track An Ominous Recording up to the closing These Fields are Lurking (Seven Pairs of Demon Eyes) the album will make you feel as if you’re attending a stage production, and concept wise it definitely feels very well welded together. Death Came Through a Phantom Ship still felt very song based, but here if you tried to take a bit of it out it always feels as if you’re missing something. Where The Corpses Sink Forever is a grand production, and it deserves the dedication that can only be given from full spins.

So surely what with everything I’ve said up until this point we must be talking about the group’s most powerful release yet? Well yes and no. Yes because it’s certainly another high quality outing from Carach Angren which isn’t going to disappoint their fanbase, and conceptually it’s superbly put together, but also no because somehow I can’t help but consider the album inferior to Death Came Through a Phantom Ship. It has a kind of more powerful and direct approach to the music that Where The Corpses Sink Forever forgoes to favour of those theatrics, which I ultimately find to have worked slightly better for the band.

Perhaps one day I may come to regard the album higher, which was in fact my experience with Death Came Through a Phantom Ship. But regardless of my personal feelings if you like black metal with a touch of class and sophistication the you have little excuse to not pick up a copy of Where The Corpses Sink Forever. An exceptional grade rating is still very much deserved.

8.8/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))

Warthur Carach Angren take the symphonic black metal stylings pioneered by Dimmu Borgir and add a big fat dose of the theatricality and storytelling that King Diamond made his own back in the day. Black metal purists may sneer, but those of us who occasionally get tired of the po-faced seriousness of other black metal bands or lyrics surrounding tedious misanthropy or comically self-important Satanism will find Where the Corpses Sink Forever to be a breath of fresh air.

The plot is simple enough - a soldier is commanded to execute seven prisoners in cold blood, but as he is about to do so they reveal themselves to be sinister spirits who force him to relive the nightmarish experiences of seven people whose lives are blighted by war in one way or another. Where the album really excels is in its skilled combination of symphonic and black metal elements, which is the best I've ever heard. Ardek is in charge of the keyboards and orchestration here and displays what seems to be a rarity in all but the very best of symphonic metal bands - a proper understanding of just what is possible with an orchestral backing. Rather than hitting the listener over the head with the same-old same-old buckets of strings, Ardek approaches his task with a subtlety rare in symphonic metal, knowing when to saw away on the strings, when a little gentle plucking (that's PLucking) is required, and when to just step back and let the metal side of the band's sound have the spotlight to itself.

On the metal side of the equation, Namtar and Seregor do a fine job; Namtar's drumming is decent and I have no real complaints about it, and Seregor plays a mean black metal riff, but on the black metal side of the band's sound it's the vocals which are really special, with Seregor (with the odd backing from Ardek) really throwing himself into the narration and bringing the characters of the stories to life.

If you want your black metal lo-fi, frostbitten and kvlter than kvlt, you probably won't be interested in Carach Angren - or much symphonic black metal at all, for that matter - but for my part I think it's a tremendously good release which, once you get used to the band's idiosyncratic approach, is a fine little listen which isn't afraid to have a bit of fun.

Time Signature The funerary dirge of a violinist...

Genre: symphonic black metal

I know that symphonic black metal is not always popular in all circles in the black metal fan community. Dimmu Borgir's "Abrahadabra" has definitely received its share of bashing from a certain group of black metal fans, and I can imagine that Carach Angren's "Where the Corpses Sink Forever" will also get a good bashing from the black metal elitists. Now, I don't give a fuck about what the elitists think. I liked "Abrahadabra" a lot, and I like "Where the Corpses Sink Forever".

Carach Angren have actually, I would argue, created a near-masterpiece of symphonic black metal. With their blend of lush and darkly epic symphonic arrangements and extreme metal, Carach Angren have really managed to create some very intense and at times even overwhelming music, and although some sections are melodic and other quite technical, and the symphonic element is ubiquitous, the album never loses its intensity.; especially 'Lingering in an Imprint Haunting' and 'Bitte Tötet Mich' are ultra intense. I especially like when the extreme metal elements and symphonic and melodic elements are merged together as in parts of 'Little Hector, What Have You Done?', and in 'Lingering in an Imprint Haunting' which features a section with melodic lead guitar on top of a furious blastbeat and wrapped in a layer of strings.

'General Nightmare' features some Iced Earth-ish riffing and an overall stomping rhythm, while 'Sir John' is built around a wonderfully odd riff and some lush symphonic arrangements on top of some ultra fast blastbeats and more primitive black metal riffage. These two tracks are nicely held together by the stomping and marching 'Spectral Infantry Battalions'.

Not only is the music very compelling, so are the lyrics, which evolve around war, death, madness, murder, and suicide, and which are delivered in harsh black metal style shrieky growling which allows you to actually her every single word. Many of the lyrics have a sort of narrative feel to them which only helps to drag the listener even further into the dark war-torn and madness-filled universe of this wonderful album.

"Where the Corpses Sink Forever" is simply a symphonic black metal masterpiece crafted by highly skilled and talented musicians with a flair for both harsh musical intensity and lush symphonic beauty, and - most importantly - a flair for combining these into a perfect equilibrium. If you loved "Abrahadabra", you will also love this one. If you hated "Abrahadabra" chances are that you will actually like this one nonetheless dues to its sheer intensity.

adg211288 Death Came Through a Phantom Ship is Carach Angren’s second full-length album, released in 2010. Lyrically this continues with their theme of conceptual albums about ghost stories, this time they’ve given us a tale of a ghost ship backed by some of the best black metal this reviewer has heard from 2010.

There’s an intro track present here, Electronic Voice Phenomena, which lasts for a little under a minute. The aim of this track appears to set the atmosphere of the album which it does exceedingly well with its use of sound effects which suddenly burst into the first actual song the band gives us which is The Sighting Is a Portent of Doom. This and the third track ...And the Consequence Macabre are like partners lyrically, forming as distinct part of the story that the album tells. The songs do not follow a traditional song structure of verse – chorus – verse – chorus etc, the lyrics are continually moving on, this is a story after all and it is always advancing, never repeating. Since this is not commercial music no chorus is actually needed as a sing-along reference point and the lack of one has made the results all the better.

These two songs really set the pace of the record. The black metal stuff is great on its own but these are some of the best symphonies backing it that I’ve heard from any symphonic black metal band. At times the music is almost classical, especially in the album’s final track, The Shining Was a Portent of Gloom. The vocals of Seregor are also top notch black metal style growls and what’s really great about them is that it is not actually that difficult to make out his lyrics even on your first listen of the album and without having the booklet to follow the songs with. To top the package off the riffs are kept interesting throughout, resulting in one really solid album that is almost up there with the very best of them, with my personally favourites of the bunch being The Sighting Is a Portent of Doom, ...And the Consequence Macabre, Bloodstains On the Captain's Log, The Course of a Spectral Ship and The Shining Was a Portent of Gloom.

Overall I’m very impressed with this album and won’t hesitant to recommend it to not just black metal fans but to all metal fans because this isn’t the typical under-produced raw black metal that some bands play, but something from a much higher level of musicianship on all fronts. The symphonies that Ardek writes and performs give a real atmosphere to the album that really fits with its concept in a way that words cannot do them justice, so maybe it would be best not to try. I’ll close this review by saying that this album was my introduction to Carach Angren and I’ve recently checked out their back catalogue and they are now firmly installed as one of my favourite black metal bands, with this being one of the best black metal releases of 2010.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)