### Carach Angren: Death came through a phantom ship

#### 30/06/10 || Butt-Beard

How do you explain a perfect record? Do you go into every aspect of it? Do you try to explain it? Or do you make fun of it?

Now this is supposed to be a concept album about The Flying Dutchman but because this is an metal record, its the extreme version. There’s rape, murder, blasphemy (the main character throws a bible into the sea), and it’s Dutch. Yep the blowmonkeys behind this are from fucking Limburg. For those who don’t know Limburg is shithole, and they have shit accents.

Anyway onto the music. It’s black metal, but not your average Burzum type band. Carach Angren are extremely good songwriters, they know how to write riffs that add to the atmosphere of the story. One of the limitations of concept records is that they often lack in RIFFS. This is the catchiest black metal record I’ve heard, and there are some funny as shit parts too. Case in point “Al Betekent Het Mijn Dood”, almost completely spoken word this track divides the album in half and is the funniest thing I’ve heard in a long time. The sudden burst of Dutch swearing really caught me off guard. Don’t get me wrong though it totally adds to the record. Nothing is out of place here.

Musically this record is fantastic. The riffs are atmospheric and catchy. The keyboards add to the overall musical feel. Not once is there a keyboard solo but there are plenty of moments when it is used like another rhythm guitar, playing breaks or layering behind the music. One of my favorite parts of this record is the bass guitar, clean and precise, a rare occurrence in extreme metal. Its not just plodding along either. Patrick Damiani is keeping up and matching the guitars and drums here. He makes some interesting choices too, very classic rock influenced playing, especially his fills.

And fuck me can Namtar drum. Precise as fuck he’s going the Trym route on this disk, accenting everything with cymbals and not doing so many rolls. He’s also laying off the snare more than other black metal drummers.

The cover is awesome too. Three dudes in corpsepaint and evil admiral suits on a stormy Dutch beach with a boat in the background. Fucking A.

This will be the yard stick for black metal to come, technical and atmospheric without sacrificing brutality. In ten years this will be in the Class6(66) section.

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Madenning Media
- Website: www.carach-angren.nl
- Band
- Seregor: guitars, vocals
- Patrick Damiani: session bass
- Ardek: keyboards
- Namtar: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Electronic voice phenomena
- 02. The sighting is a portent of doom
- 03. And the consequence macabre
- 04. Van der Decken’s triumph
- 05. Bloodstains on the captain’s log
- 06. Al betekent het mijn dood
- 07. Departure towards a nautical curse
- 08. The course of a spectral ship
- 09. The shining was a portent of gloom