Artist: Odenwald
Country: Germany
Label: Altare Productions
Formats: Cassette EP
Year: 2025
With having exactly zero information to work with, I can’t say anything else then that ‘Felsenmeer’ is the debut EP (or demo, if you prefer) from this German Black Metal band and, according to the booklet, it was recorded in 204. So, as is often the case with bands shrouded in mystery, and especially with their debut recordings, we will let the music speak for itself.
‘Felsenmeer’ itself is just over 16 minutes and count two tracks, simply called ‘Einse’ and ‘Zwei’, also the cover art is rather basic and harkens back to the old school aesthetics of the Black Metal genre. And, frankly, it is also in these regions we can place Odenwald: a German black metal band that would have felt right at home around the turn of the millennium.
Like many German underground Black Metal bands from some two or three decades ago, Odenwald too is mainly relying on fierce and sharp riffs but do convey a strong Pagan feeling as well. This is not due to the use of keyboards, but rather to the dynamic songwriting and the strong melancholic melodies woven through both songs. If, for the sake of convenience, try to keep the musical comparisons within German borders, I guess you can make a fair case to put Odenwald somewhere in the middle between Moonblood, Bilskirnir, Aaskereia and Bergthron. I am quite confident that you can come up with a good amount of other comparisons will more or less amount to the same thing. As usual, that also is largely dependent on your personal frame of reference and musical taste, but the bottom line with Odenwald is that both these tracks will appeal to those who have a soft spot of late 90’s and early 00’s Black Metal of German ilk. It has much in common with those bands that I ran into by blindly ordering tapes from mail orders and through those compilation CD’s that back in the day came with the German Ablaze Magazine. Yet, what sets Odenwald apart from the majority of those older bands is that ‘Felsenmeer’ has a remarkably clear sound, that gives the band’s more melodic side extra punch. A very promising start for this new band.
