Published: October 8, 2013

Majestic Teutonic black metallers Frigoris return for their sophomore album and paint a soundscape of epic and forlorn emotions for nearly 50 minutes on Wind.  After cold, fragile acoustic guitars pull you into a world of natural beauty on Windgefluster, you are then transported to a field of darkness as Zwischenwelten unfolds.  Slowly drifting riffs flow in blackened, yet somehow folky rhythms while stony vocals drag across the music.  I am reminded a bit of Kampfar with Frigoris' style.  Acoustic guitar deepens that folky feel for me until more forceful riffs color the fabric of the song with melancholy.  Im Keim Ertrunken feels weathered with its slowly weaving guitars in its initial section.  At the 2:21 mark we are finally struck with forceful black metal that undulates quickly while maintaining a terrific pace.  After a clean guitar interlude a delicate, epic riff caresses the song before once again exploding into aggressive drum patterns.  Another instrumental on the album is Hauch and is fraught with sorrow and nostalgia through its use of acoustic guitar in a somewhat desolate context.  Und Asche Rinnt Durch Meine Hande builds with doomy, fuzzed out guitars accented by lonely melodic flourishes and folky black metal touches.  The vocals are so imposing in this song but fit the moodiness of the music.  An ancient pagan atmosphere permeates the midtempo riffs and imbues it with a feeling of faded splendor.  But there is a surprise lurking in the songwriting as the guitars and drums dance of one another in an unexpected way before the track bursts into energetic black metal.  Fans of folky black metal in the vein of Kampfar and early Falkenbach should cling to Frigoris, though musically they are somewhat more morose and somber than those two bands.  You can hear hints of Agalloch nesteled within the sorrowful fringes of the album, most noticeably on doomier portions of Wenn Die Maske Bricht.  Wind is an album of solitary glory and blackened beauty.