Band:	Antrisch
Album:	Expedition II: Die Passage
Style:	Atmospheric black metal
Release date:	April 2023

01. I Festgefroren - Packeisfalle
02. II Wahnrationen - Saturnusparusie
03. III In Perpetuum - Ewiger Schlaf Im Ewigen Eis
04. IIII Vltima Ratio - Antropophager Frühling
05. IIIII Exodus | Tundrataumel - Croziers Bürde
06. IIIIII 68° 15′ N 98° 45′ W - 68° 54′ N 98° 56′ W

Black metal about the highest peaks of nature and the lowest peaks of man.

That is roughly the manifesto of what Antrisch try to explore with their music and lyrics, according to their Bandcamp description. Nature and man have always been some of the most fruitful pieces of inspiration, especially as far as black metal is concerned, so a band trying to tie the two themes together leaves for plenty of ground that can be covered. Of course, having the lyrics be in German might create a bit of a roadblock with its language barrier, though I doubt there's much that the lyrics alone would've portrayed that aren't transmitted anyway through Maurice Wilson's (a pseudonym by the way) vocal performance. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Some of you might think the band name is familiar or wonder that, if I'm reviewing an album with "II" in its name, then what of I?

You might remember Antrisch's Expedition I: Dissonanzgrat from our Clandestine Cuts series. We're really fond of watching bands who we cover in that series make their way to full albums and thus main page reviews, and you'll find plenty of such cases, it's a much rarer occurrence for someone other than who covered the band in the CCs to cover their full length. It's a sign that the band's appeal expended to more than one writer. Hence why it was nikarg who covered Antrisch's EP but it is me who takes the mantle for the follow-up. It isn't just because my reviewing frequency is higher than nikarg's, I was genuinely excited to see this particular band take the next step.

Now granted, it isn't like the step is that big. The folks in Antrisch have been in other bands, most of them having been in the folk black Kromlek and then the groovy melodeath 7th Abyss, thus coming into Antrisch with more than 15 years of metal experience, and the first expedition was 27 minutes, scratching the upper limits of EP lengths, and with this second expedition only ten more minutes in length, the difference is small. And back to the music, the band already had a pretty good idea what sound they were going for with their first release, and this is a mere extension without very much need for refinement anyway. Antrisch are black metal in a very broad way, but the versatility the band has in approaching it would make calling them just black metal a bit reductive.

One may add tags like "atmospheric" or "melodic" or even "progressive" and that wouldn't be far from the truth. As far as the instrumental go, while the music itself is quite high-energy by atmospheric black metal standards, it never goes much into pummeling territories or revel in its own heaviness. The melodies make use of a slight doom inspiration to create a quite dread inducing atmosphere, finding a balance between repetition and more direct songwriting. And the production leaves room for all the instruments to make some sort of impact. But I'd be lying if I said the one element that attracts the most attention are the vocals. While a significant chunk of it is black metal shrieking, there's something so melodramatic about the vocalist's German ramblings that gives the album a sort of literary feeling, as if experiencing a story through the narrator's increasingly dissociated psyche. It is a bit hard to compliment the instrumental's achievements when the vocal performance seizes this much attention, but the blend of the two works to bring the concept to life, with the instrumentals leaning towards a Kauan-ish natural side and the vocals towards an A Forest Of Stars-ish human side.

While the expedition in the story does not seem to have been a pleasant success for the people involved, the album around it certainly is.