Vehemency Ambient black metal, they say about Karg’s second full-length Von den Winden der Sehnsucht #2. But what I mostly hear is reverberating black metal leaning on both melancholy and harshness, not much unlike Horn, and quite an incoherent 78-minute journey the album most definitely is.

Don’t get me wrong, V.Wahntraum knows what he’s doing here with his meandering black metal where melodic lead guitars meet almost technical song progressions in a lo-fi production, but when a dominant number of the songs run for over 15 minutes, it becomes clear that almost none of the riffs are truly outstanding and worth of such long lengths: hence I always find myself slightly bored halfway through the 16-minute second track ”Wahntraum”. There’s a gaping hole in the album’s coherency, resulting in a prolonged whole where different riffs are fired constantly, reminding me of an impatient ADHD child who can’t focuse on one thing at a time and build something good out of it.

The musical style remains the same from the beginning to the end: occasionally clean guitar sound is in more prominent role (as in the highligh track ”Ruhe Unsanft” that also incorporates some violin), sometimes a few samples are added to the mix inside songs’ transitions from a part to another, and V.Wahntraum does do good job with his raspy, convincing screams.

Here’s to hoping that some day Karg manages to build a stronger whole off the elements he’s using at the moment, because there’s surely potential in there. But Von den Winden der Sehnsucht #2 doesn’t really lure for replay, both because of the overall playing time and the lack of inspired riffage - or perhaps I’m just too busy to give the album enough time to sink in. If that’s the case, then you better give this album a great deal of time.