Vehemency
Vogelsang, a new German black metal band, doesn’t rise above the mark of mediocrity on its debut release Aus den Trümmern Empor but is still quite an enjoyable piece. The album provides six songs of which five are black metal, something between the many nationalistic pagan black metal bands hailing from the east (hear the noble clean vocals all around the record) and some obvious Darkthrone influences (the first track ”Flammendes Herz” being a fitting example).
”Im Schatten der Burg” is an exception from this pattern, being a six-minute interlude-of-sorts consisting of only non-distorted guitars, although the raw recording makes it sound rather distorted. So it is not exactly a sweet lullaby either. The mid-tempo ”Trutzfeste Europa” brings in the best moments of Aus den Trümmern Empor with its nice transitions from haunting clean vocal choirs to more traditional, raw black metal approach.
I am not sure should this be called a full-length at all because the record runs just for 25 minutes - anyhow, it is a good whole and definitely does not make me snooze a bit. It does lack something that would make it remarkable in any way, hence I can not say Aus den Trümmern Empor is mandatory at all. Fans of the east scene will find this good, most likely.