PAYSAGE D'HIVER — Steineiche (review)

PAYSAGE D'HIVER — Steineiche album cover

Album · 1998 · Atmospheric Black Metal

4/5 · 2020-10-07
siLLy puPPy

In the world of lo-fi kvlt black metal perhaps no other act has done a better job at keeping it so old school pure as Switzerland’s PAYSAGE D’HIVER which is French for “wintery landscape.” Formed near Bern in 1997, this has been the lo-fi playground for sole member Wintherr which is an alias for Tobias Möcki who also poses as Wroth in the band Darkspace. Wintherr has been a master of cranking out lengthy sprawling ambient black metal albums over the years but really takes things to a kvlt extreme by classifying them all as demos. Only in 2020 with the release of “Im Wald” has he allowed a release to be classified as an “album,” but whatever! right? With most releases over 60 minutes, they’re friggin albums already :D

PAYSAGE D’HIVER was very much inspired by Burzum’s earliest albums, especially “Hvis Lyset Tar Oss” and “Filosefem” which is obvious on this debut release STEINEICHE (German for “Holm Oak”). Despite the Burzum influences of mixing extremely lo-fi raw production styles with atmospheric ambience and sprawling soundscapes that flow on like frozen rivers in the Alps, PAYSAGE D’HIVER isn’t afraid to crank out some of the noisiest and most aggressive examples of black metal as heard by Darkthrone, Mayhem or Immortal. Add to that a touch of excellent songwriting that allows different segments of this behemoths to stand out and keep the tracks from falling into tedious drudgery, it’s not hard to hear even on this first offering why PAYSAGE D’HIVER has become such an underground kvlt sensation.

STEINEICHE only consists of four tracks yet reaches the whopping running time of over 72 minutes! Wow! Two tracks along exceed 20 minutes and the shortest is 11 and a half. To be honest that’s only true on the first CD-R as all the following releases removed the track “Déjà Vu” which didn’t fit the plan after Wintherr constructed a thematic approach which continues to link his albums together even to the modern day. Technically the music of each album tells a different story about a realm known as PAYSAGE D’HIVER with each track adding a different dimension to the story but when all is said and done that’s mumbo jumbo because if you’re in it for the creepy lo-fi black metal fix then these narratives don’t really add much IMHO. The secret of PAYSAGE D’HIVER is to construct side by side tracks of black metal and dark ambient which could theoretically be separate tracks but work so much better together.

The opening “Baumfrau” hits the 20 minute mark and is the most aggressive track on board with ferocious high tempo black metal aggressiveness rampaging in tandem with darkened ambient sounds of winter. The lo-fi aspects keep this firmly planted in another dimension that is merely bleeding through but never quite accessible in full spectrum. The music is vicious and perfectly depicts the cruel brutality of a frigid winter and its unforgiving punishing persistence. “Baummann” offers a slower funeral doom metal side of the black metal universe with the atmospheric ambience dominating while funeral dirge-like riffs echo in tortuous glee as nature and the underworld plot to bring the living to its knees. Once again Wintherr knows how long he can milk any particular motif and subtly changes things up without sullying the atmospherically bleak procession into the abyss.

“Der Baum” is the lengthiest track which almost hits the 25 minute mark. Beginning with a creepy synth marching along it takes several minutes before a demonic voice whispers from the netherworld however it’s unclear what frightful utterances emerge. This one requires a bit more patience as the dungeon synth drones on for a good long time but just as it sounds like it’s about to fade into oblivion around the 18 minute mark the percussive march of ambience transmogrifies into a swirling vortex of ambient bliss as if your consciousness has been lifted into the astral planes at least the shadowy regions where the light is in short supply. However just when all hope is lost, angelic voices emerge from the misty sonic brume and sheds a glimmer of hope and the track ends its 24 minute ambience in a completely unexpected way without a lick of black metal to be heard.

While the track “Déjà Vu” has been removed from STEINEICHE after the first CD-R, somehow i feel compelled to include it simply because it was originally part of the master plan before a larger picture started to emerge in Wintherr’s agenda. This song is based on a David Crosby song titled “Orleans” and possibly titled after the famous Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album. Yeah it takes six minutes of howling wind and creepy synth notes to begin the song but finally it begins and i couldn’t agree more that this track totally didn’t belong on this album. So after this one is nixed from the mix the album is only 60 minutes long on other releases other than the first however it’s not a bad track at all. Burzum seems to be a favorite of atmospheric black metal buffs and although i do like the early albums, his style has never grabbed me substantially. Personally i prefer PAYSAGE D’HIVER who picked up Burzum’s style as he sat in his prison cell and ran away with it. While this debut tends to get ignored, i actually love this one quite a bit. True it’s not an every day occasion when i wanna sit back and soak in bleakness but when i do, STEINEICHE.