Published: February 2014

As a relatively young and unknown German band, Frigoris strikes with their second full-length album called "Wind", and shift the attention to themselves. Being boldly compared to old Agalloch, old Woods of Ypres and Imperium Dekadenz, "Wind" carefully threads a distinctive path of emotional, atmospheric melodic black metal, with a few pagan black metal touches.  The album delivers a strong emotional and natural atmosphere through use of acoustic guitars and melancholic melodies mixed with energetic black metal. Following the introduction acoustic track "Windgeflüster", the album sweeps onwards with "Zwischenwelten",an energetic track oriented on black metal with a subtle pagan feeling, with a emotional riff structure. "Frühlingsnacht" opens up with an acoustic intro, and grows into a heavy, mid tempo black metal track, in which clean guitars are intertwined with dark black metal riffs. Following is an instrumental track, "Hauch", a beautiful folk acoustic interlude, and by this point the albums distinctive image is forged - the perfectly balanced mixture of acoustic folk and atmospheric, pagan black metal, focused on creating a distinct emotional blend, a nostalgic journey through olden fields. Here, the comparison to old Agalloch is strongest, these moments resonate with "The Mantle" and "The White EP", but in their own way, with a distinct feeling, not just a mere copy. After these five songs and a careful build-up of atmosphere, and patient creation of the image, the album culminates with the sixth track "...und Asche rinnt durch meine Hände". An incredible track of profound composition and carefully woven melancholic melodies conveyed through this mid-tempo pagan black metal track, whose atmosphere is driven with careful combination of acoustics and distortion, whispered vocals and screams, heavy and tremolo driven riffs, slow and mid tempo drums, but all of it still veiled in a mist of melancholy. This is a milestone in the album, a point that seals the image this band creates. Following are the great instrumental "Ode an verlorene Seelen" filled with spoken samples and "Wenn die Maske bricht" similar to the preceding songs.  At this point, being left awestruck and bewildered, the question that rested in my head - "Are we dealing with an unique masterpiece ?", became an obvious positive answer. Although repetitive at very few moments, "Wind" is a memorable, complex album mandatory for those who enjoy intelligent, melancholic music, somewhere in between atmospheric and pagan black metal. Recommended!