Carach Angren "Where the Corpses Sink Forever" Review

Carach Angren
Where the Corpses Sink Forever

This symphonic black metal trio has been taking the black metal scene by storm as of late, most notably with their third album released earlier this year, Where the Corpses Sink Forever. Hailing from the Netherlands, Carach Angren, comprised of Seregor on guitars and vocals, Namtar on drums, and Ardek on keyboards and orchestral aspects, has been receiving incredible feedback and praise, specifically for Ardek’s orchestrations, since their first full-length album, Lammendam, released in 2008. Two years after this, they presented even more brutal and majestic work with their sophomore album, Death Came Through a Phantom Ship. Both albums tell the stories of different Dutch legends; the former being of a white ghost that haunts a town that bears the same name, and the latter being of the Flying Dutchman. Their most recent beast does not change the story-telling aspect of their lyrics, except this time, it tells a story, or rather several stories, they wrote themselves.

Simply put, this album is incredible; forty-four minutes of thrilling greatness. The first thing that’s noticed on this album is Ardek’s aforementioned orchestrations. Each song contains a different masterpiece, sending listeners on a wild range of emotions depending on the story that’s being growled at you by Seregor. For example, the violin melodies in “The Funerary Dirge of a Violinist” are pure beauty; you can just feel the despair of the war-torn violinist in the notes as they evoke feelings pity for the fictional, nameless character. Of course, sadness and pity aren’t the only things felt from the melodies. Later on, in tracks such as “General Nightmare”, they create a great atmosphere that you can easily imagine being the soundtrack to the scene being described in the lyrics if it were turned into a screenplay of sorts: a desperate, confused, fast-paced urgency that easily gives you chills the first go ‘round or two.

However, Ardek isn’t the only one that throws emotions in your face; Seregor is a great vocalist for several reasons. He adds more emotion to his vocals than I’ve ever heard – give “Funerary Dirge…” or “Lingering in an Imprint Haunting” a listen, you’ll see exactly what I mean – and he knows just how to make his listeners shiver if that’s what the band wants. Is he your typical black metal vocalist? Absolutely not. Does he have the most impressive range? Not that we’ve seen thus far, but it’s clear that he’s aware of this. He doesn’t push himself to do false shrieks he’s incapable of doing, and he doesn’t risk shredding his vocal chords doing gutturals he can’t pull off. Does his voice get low at times in the album? Indeed, but only for the sake of emphasis and horror; the deeper growls never last too long, but even so, they’re impressive. His voice, at least in my opinion, is one-of-a-kind, it’s quite different, but in a welcomed, refreshing sort of way. It’s hard to capture the essence of his vocals in words, quite honestly, but I tried. They’re fantastic, you’ll just have to take my word on it.

Namtar’s drum work and Seregor’s guitar melodies complete the masterpieces perfectly. The drums aren’t too over-powering, nor are they unrecognized. Plenty of blast-beats throughout the album, but they aren’t relied on. Namtar isn’t distastefully fast or boringly slow, he’s just right. If I had to say, it’s as if Daray (Vesania/Vader/Dimmu Borgir) and Dominator (Dark Funeral) had a child. At times, the guitar riffing sounds like something that would be found more in the melodic genres as opposed to the symphonic genres, but they fit in well, adding the final, icy touch to the already-frigid works of art.

I personally think it’s safe to say that Carach Angren are the up-and-coming kings, or at least princes, of the symphonic black metal genre. Arguably the element that bands struggle with the most in this genre is finding equilibrium between the symphony and the band, with the failure usually being in the reliance on symphony. That isn’t the case with these boys. It’s clear they know what they’re doing and they know exactly what they want and what works. With Where the Corpses Sink Forever they were able to once again successfully find common ground between black metal and symphony to create an amazing album.

Unfortunately, and I hate to say it, nothing is perfect. Are there flaws with this album? As with every other. My main problems with this album are small, nit-picky details, so nothing too dire that will make me change my mind at all about it as a whole.

1.) The first issue I had was with track seven, “General Nightmare”. I do really enjoy this track except for the fact that I thought the lyrics were a little bit less inspired than the rest of the album. The phrase “general nightmare” was repeated too much for my personal liking throughout, and, compared to the other tracks, the lyrics just seemed a bit lacking overall.
2.) After I went back and read the lyrics, I noticed something seemed out of place in track three, “Bitte Tötet Mich” (“Please Kill Me” in German). Here’s where I got nit-picky: when Seregor is speaking as the nameless, suicidal soldier, the speech turns German. The change in language isn’t my problem, the delivery of the lyrics is. If you don’t read/translate the lyrics here, you would think it was perhaps an officer speaking to the soldier as opposed to what it actually is: the soldier continuing his soliloquy. The demeanor of the speaker is just horribly inaccurate and misleading.
3.) At certain times, I felt as though the drums could have been a little louder. Just a small bit in a few places, such as on track two, “Lingering in an Imprint Haunting”. Nothing at all against Namtar and his work, but, logically, I can’t enjoy what I can’t hear!

That being said, I give Carach Angren’s Where the Corpses Sink Forever a solid 94% and I await their next masterpiece with eager ears!

Noteworthy tracks:
Track Two: “Lingering in an Imprint Haunting”
Track Four: “The Funerary Dirge of a Violinist”
Track Eight: “Little Hector What Have You Done?”

(Originally written for headbangerssanctuary.com on Nov. 27th, 2012)