Vehemency
On his second full-length offering Ein Wintermärchen, Draumar most certainly doesn’t break any boundaries when it comes to winter themed ambient black metal, no; the influences of Vinterriket and of course Burzum shine through, but the album is still quite an enjoyable experience even in all its unoriginality.
Ein Wintermärchen is very, very rich in ambient: lush ambient passages - comprising synths, pianos and whatnot - dominate the record and, in fact, it could almost be said that the album is genre-wise ambient with minor black metal elements. It’s not until the six-minute ”I” is gone when the first sounds of lo-fi drums, tremolo-picked guitars and screams (delivered by the mind behind Elffor) appear in ”II”, and just for a minute or so until the dreamy ambient soundscapes are there again to carry the song to the end.
There’s a slight taste of New Ageish sound when it comes to the ambient but it’s bearable. My personal preference would be something less pompous and more minimal, something not this well produced, but I can’t escape the fact that most of the melodies are still captivating and even memorable, which is an achievement in a genre so crowded.
The quality of the music stays steadily good throughout so that there aren’t any annoyingly weak links in the whole, so all in all I find Ein Wintermärchen a successful and worthy album to check out if you prefer a lot of ambient in your wintry black metal. Not hundred percent my cup of tea, but easily above your average ambient black metal album.