Wilytank The same year that 'Steineiche' was released, Tobias Mockl released another album (demo) in the Paysage d'Hiver name. It's titled 'Schattengang', and though I like 'Steineiche' much more than this one, I still find it to be a very noteworthy album in the Paysage d'Hiver discography. Unfortunately, the original version of this album is hard to come across, so I must make due with the three song re-release from 2006. Though shorter than 'Steineiche', it still features a generous amount of wintery magic issued forth by Mockl.

The journey begins with "Moloch"'s spacey sounding ambiance and whispering vocals. The black metal part finally kicks in two minutes and forty-five seconds into the song. The tempo in this song is slower, but not death doom metal slow like "Der Baummann" on the first album. Throughout the passage of the black metal half of the song, the vocals are growling. The keyboards are also playing throughout the entirety of the song making the atmosphere very dreamlike. The guitars are mostly played in chords and chugs, but the tempo varies noticeably throughout the passage of the song, eventually settling down on one type of style at the 10:45. This outro is played slowly with chords but very extravagantly with the keyboard, which go great with the snow/space/dream type setting.

Wind blowing, wolves howling, and...sleigh bells? That's how the next major song on the album "Die Zeit des Torremond" starts off. To call this a single song sounds like a bit of a stretch though as it doesn't seem like a single complete thought but several, all crammed into 21 minutes. This time around, the music is much faster with the guitar playing in tremolos and the drum machine playing in blastbeats. The first of the movements in this song is more light sounding, but still wintry and spacey sounding courtesy of the keyboards. After something of an intro passage, the beat stays the same for the length of what could probably be safely called a verse before moving on to a more of a lengthy buildup section that repeats itself once until reaching the climax at the 4:17, where the tempo drops slightly and one guitar begins playing a real awesome sounding leading passage. Over a minute later, it fades away to the sounds of wolves and sleigh bells. The second movement begins at the 6:06 mark and proceeds at a notably slower pace at first, but changes after the first minute as the drums begin to get more furious sounding. The notes being played do vary, but the main key of this section seems to remain largely the same throughout. By the ten minute mark, the section fades out to another interlude. This time, it features keyboard ambiance, the sound of something banging on something else, and whispering vocals. The black metal kicks back in at the 11:58 mark to begin the third movement. Again, it starts off slower paced while still retaining copious amounts of speed. At 12:58, another prominent lead guitar section comes in with the guitar playing some power chords. Then, the key changes at 14:03 to a lower and dark sound; and then back again to a lighter, faster paced rhythm about thirty seconds later; and once more to a slower, darker rhythm at the 15:50 mark. By 17:07, only silence remains. This silence goes on for almost 20 seconds before being interrupted by what seems to be a movie sample with heavy keyboard ambient in the background. After the sound of a door slamming, the metal comes back in for the final part of this song. It's slow paced again and also dark sounding with calm sounding lead guitar which turns out to be the music that the song eventually fades out with.

What remains is an ambient piece called "Atmosphaere". Unlike the ancient sounding "Der Baum", this piece takes a more spacey approach to develop the atmosphere in the music. It works well though, as most of this album seems to be more space/dream oriented than flat out winter themed.

So the spacey and dreamy journey of 'Schattengang' isn't quite as epic as the desolate and ancient journey of 'Steineiche', it's a nice variation of the experience of winter. Consequentially, I find it most fitting to listen to this album in the middle of the night in the middle of a snow covered field while there's not clouds in the sky so that all the stars can be seen. It's pretty cool in my opinion to put music like this in natural perspective anyway, and the sweet trip through the "Shade Course" is no exception to that feeling.

Wilytank Tobias Mockl and his gang made some very excellent music in Darkspace, but I feel that I should give some recognition to Mockl's solo project, Paysage d'Hiver, so that I can avoid looking like an ignorant cad. I did say in one of my Darkspace reviews that Paysage d'Hiver doesn't grab my interest the way that Darkspace does. That obviously doesn't mean I don't like P d'H at all. I'm sure part of the lesser appeal is me not liking to listen to winter themed music in the heat of summer though. However, winter always comes back, and one of the albums I always go back to listening to is 'Steineiche', Paysage d'Hiver's cold-hearted debut.

So how does pure winter work its way into twenty minutes? Exibit A: "Die Baumfrau". Two and three quarter minutes of lo-fi ambient and wind sounds, then a blizzard of black metal. It's a storm of tremolo riffs, blast beating drums, and screeching vocals all in lo-fi production. Is there variation? Yes there is. The original passage is changed at the 4:36 mark, but it is not until the 5:26 mark where the blizzard calms down for the first time. Keyboards and slower guitar notes are played which are continued when the drums and tremolo rhythm kick back into play. At a certain point in this movement, the screeching vocals are replaced by lower sounding vocals (you still can't understand what they're saying). Quieter music comes back again at the 7:43 mark with the keyboard and a lead guitar's soft playing only audible once again continued when the rest of the storm returns. The slower, softer plucking of the lead guitar is eventually replaced by a swarm of tremolo notably more prominent than the rhythm guitar's storm. The song slows down around the second half of the tenth minute, which is nice to have just to acknowledge that not every minute of this song has to be backbreaking fast. The tremolos are mostly maintained, but the drumming slows down noticeably, but finally returns at the 12:30 mark. Yet another quiet section of ambient and calm guitar starts just thirty seconds later. Toby extends this break a little longer with his muted snarling, and a more electric sounding guitar eventually creating a buildup of sorts. Then, the original black metal section near the beginning of the song is given a reprise. Though I can't say that this song doesn't repeat any sections anymore, it's not that big of a deal since it's over ten minutes since that riff was played. Within the latter end of the 16 minute mark, another new passage is played with some choral like wailing and odd percussion played alongside the blastbeating drum machine. Once that ends, the song slows down (without going into yet another calm break) with slower riffs and drumming and the sound of a bell tolling. This is maintained as the song fades out to silence.

"Die Baumfrau" is the only song on the album that gets fast paced the way it did. All the other songs are much slower, but they perfectly maintain the winter atmosphere with other approaches.

"Der Baummann" is slower and doomier. There's a calm guitar providing an atmospheric blanket over the raw sounding riffing and a bell tolling in the background once again. After about three minutes, the bell and calm sounding guitar are replaced by keyboard ambient. The vocals in the first part of this song are low growls. At 5:38, a melodic sounding interlude begins with little activity from the bass and drums. A little more than a minute later, the song switches back to the normal style, different played section. The calm guitar also returns to play a little melody only to be replaced by the keyboard just before the ten minute mark is reached. There's also some violin playing that comes in around the 12 minute mark. When the violin kicks in, the music pretty much maintains the riff it has until it fades out leaving only violin and wind sounds in the final two minutes of this song.

And the remaining track, "Der Baum", is...actually not metal at all. It's the longest piece on the album, but it's all keyboard ambient. You know what, though? I'm perfectly fine with it. Beginning at the 3:50 mark, there are vocals. This time, they are delivered in whispers to add a creepier effect. There's two verses of lyrics to read, but if you don't follow them, they seem to end before you know it; and at that point, you're barely a third of the way through the song. The rest of the song features more glorious keyboard ambient along with bits of tolling bell. Within the final three minutes, a female voice singing in an operatic fashion completes the journey and image, of the song and of the album.

Tobias Mockl has crafted an album/demo about winter in such a way that winter themed metal will never find an equal. The imagery is perfect for it. The fast and raw "Die Baumfrau" makes me feel like I'm trying to survive a blizzard, the slower death doom metal styled "Der Baummann" makes me feel like I'm wondering in a snow covered forest without having any idea where I need to go, and "Der Baum" gives me the feeling of me finding a large stone with engravings on it in the ground in the middle of the snow covered forest. After reading the engravings, I realize that this stone is my gravestone, and my soul is lifted from my mortal shell, becoming one with the spirit of winter. That is the magic of 'Steineiche'.