UMUR
"The Haunting at Helmbrook" is the 4th full-length studio album by US, Texas based black/death metal artist Bryan Eckermann. The album was independently released in July 2016. Bryan Eckermann started the solo project in 2014 and released the "Ghosts of Earth" debut full-length studio album later that same year. He performs all instruments and vocals on "The Haunting at Helmbrook". Eckermann is also known for his involvement in acts like Wings of Abaddon, Blessed Agony, and Ancient Malus.
"The Haunting at Helmbrook" is a concept horror story, which in short is about a small town witnessing a mass murder, and those responsible blaming the only survivor and demonic possession for the incident. So a classic dark horror tale. Eckermann has in interviews spoken of his appreciation of King Diamond and his horror concept albums, and conceptually "The Haunting at Helmbrook" is very much in the vein of that influence. Musically we´re in another territory though, as the music on the album is melodic oriented black/death metal. Many of the melodic harmony themes and ideas lead my thoughts toward King Diamond though, so there are also some references there. The tempo is mostly slow- to mid-paced and the riffs and rhythms are heavy, and with 13 tracks, and a full playing time of 73:43 minutes, the music style becomes a bit one-dimensional and the tracks not easy to tell apart. All tracks are still quality material, but the album could have prospered from a bit more variation between tracks and maybe a few faster paced tracks too. Whenever an atmospheric acoustic guitar section, a melodic lead guitar theme, or a memorable riff appear and break the stylistic monotony, it becomes apparent that more variation is needed. Especially considering the length of the album.
"The Haunting at Helmbrook" is overall a well written release though and it´s obvious that Eckermann is a skilled composer with many adventurous songwriting ideas and an arsenal of knowledge of musical styles to pick from. His playing skills are also considerable, although I´m a bit in doubt if the drums are programmed or played by Eckermann. It´s not a major issue, but the drums do sound a little "stiff" and artificial. In addition to drums, guitar, bass, and vocals, the music also features the use of atmosphere enhancing keyboards, although the music is predominantly guitar and vocal driven. The basslines are often also pretty interesting.
The greatest asset on the album is the dark atmosphere and the horror concept story, which work really well. Eckermann tells the story with passion and conviction, and his intelligible black metal type vocals are well delivered. He ventures into slightly more clean vocal territory once or twice during the playing time, and that works very well too. "The Haunting at Helmbrook" is relatively well produced too (everything except the drums sound great), so upon conclusion the album is a quality release by Bryan Eckermann. There are a few minor issues which keep the album from getting a higher rating, and those are the lack of variation in the songwriting department and the artificial sounding drums, but other than that, "The Haunting at Helmbrook" is a very intriguing and recommendable release. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.