Review: Semen Datura - “Einsamkeit” (2009)
There’s a fine line in progressive black metal between augmenting the genre’s accepted aesthetic and completely destroying it, and Germany’s Semen Datura are straddling that line proudly on this release. The first actual song ‘Unter Bleigvanen Wolkenlasten’ includes some very traditional black metal elements, but even it has some weird touches. Things really start to get unusual on the fourth track ‘Mental Outlaw’ though - it begins with a creepy intro before suddenly breaking into kind of a blackened industrial beat. Semen Datura’s spastic songwriting is often unpredictable, but they’re good enough musicians that at least a lot of the time, the riffs they are moving between are pretty awesome ones, so the end result is a very entertaining album.
This is one of those albums that is so unique it’s hard to describe it accurately, but rest assured that if you enjoy bands outside the norm of black metal like Lux Occulta, Todtgelichter or Ved Buens Ende, you’ll most likely dig Einsamkeit. Some of Semen Datura’s guitar riffing actually sounds pretty close to the riffing style on Todtgelichter’s last album Schemen, but there are also passages that sound like a more disturbed version of Katatonia, and some parts even get close to melodic death metal territory (in a good way).
The songs on the album are highly variable, but there are plenty of highlights. In addition to the tracks I already mentioned, ‘Ritke Stadt’ features a lot of great melodic riffing, while ‘Vineta’ is a short acoustic composition that carries a sort of medieval vibe. ‘Marschbefehl’ starts out wth a furious riff that sounds closer to death/grind than black metal, but later lapses into a shout-along section which I found somewhat misguided. The rest of the album sticks more closely to a straight aggressive black metal style, but with a well-developed sense of melody.
The songs on the album are are varied enough that most metal fans should find at least a couple tracks they really like on this release. So unless you are a total black metal purist, Einsamkeit is definitely an album you should be checking out.
