After all these years, I still discover new joys about reviewing albums. Well in this case, it was more about the final step: getting to publish a one month work, wanting to notify the band about it and find out that you may do this again with a shorter deadline. It looked kind of discouraging but unlike another tedious case in a regular job, this is one I gladly asked for. Bergrizen left me a strong and positive impression with Orathania. Die Falle comes in a difficult context as well, as the band statement follows:
The work on the album started in late summer of 2021, and it will be officially released only on 21.12.2023. Why did it take so long? Because the work was forced to stop in winter 2022. Believe me, it’s very difficult to write music when the missiles are flying over your head and smashing buildings on the streets. It’s very difficult when you are sitting without electricity 12 hours per day or sometimes even more than 24 hours. Also, Myrd’raal was in a hospital, he had some problems with his lungs, and the way to record the vocal was uncertain.
[…] We weren’t sure that we would be able to finish Die Falle, but we wanted to say something about the situation in our country through music. In the end, we decided to release an ambient album, as an “intermediate” album, because we already had some experimental, conceptual material for another project, but decided to do it under the “Bergrizen” name in the end. Perhaps some people understood this music, some people didn’t understand it at all, but we did it anyway, it was our decision, and as the classic sings “nothing else matters”.
The day has come, when the Myrd’raal recorded vocals for the Die Falle overcoming the pain in his lungs. Another work, such as mixing, mastering, and design was finished in the middle of October 2023. […] Looking back on our way, sometimes it is hard to believe that we did it. Die Falle is a very important album for us because it’s unique both in terms of music and the story of creation.
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“Ich Vergesse Nicht” opens the album beautifully. It is expressive and I find something harrowing in this song, maybe because of its name (I Do Not Forget) and the only word I think I understood with my limited ukrainian: “druzhe” which means “friend” in the form in which you are speaking to him. The vocals are especially on point. From there, the album goes by distinctive phases, all well cadenced. Gloomy and bitter on “Ich Vergebe Nicht”, angry and epic on “Der Rituelle Mord” (Öffnung Der Tore)”. Then comes the title-track “Die Falle (Der Wanderer 3)”. Starting in a very classic way with piano and orchestra, it appears as the UFO of the album, and I love it. The whistles complete it and makes it a tragic beauty. It is overall very contrasted and in an interesting way. It is faster than the previous song yet much more atmospheric and inspiring than the first.
The closing “Verschneite Winternacht” (Snowy Winter Night) made me find the medieval/fantastic aura again I first encountered on Orathania, this time with a different hint and end. It’s audacious, I even felt a chivalrous, military touch, especially thanks to the drums that reminded me of Krumkač in some parts. Krumkač are a Belarusian band I had mentioned in my 2018 year review – incredible year by the way – but strangely enough, I never reviewed their amazing EP Honar I Kroŭ. What is even stranger is that I missed their 2019 release.
Anyways, the closing “Pamiać U Majoj Kryvi” is the track I found close to this one by Bergrizen. I am not quite sure about the intentions or the lyrics of Die Falle since they started composing it in summer 2021 and finished it this spring but with the ongoing war and the longest night of the year coming, it would be nice to light a candle and spare a thought for the Ukrainian soldiers in the cold muddy trenches.
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Die Falle is out on December 21st
Header image by Yuriy Jurgen Semikov / Jurgen Metal Photography
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