Grendel’s Sÿster – Katabasis Into The Abaton
Grendel’s Sÿster – Katabasis Into The Abaton
Cruz Del Sur Music
Release Date: 30/08/24
Running Time: 38:20
Review by Dark Juan
Score: 999,999,999/10
Dark Juan here! Something unexpected has occurred over the UK. There’s a big yellow ball in the sky and it is unaccountably warm in Yorkshire, a county that is used only to incessant grey drizzle, freezing winds and ill-favoured people muttering sotto-voce greetings while staring at their feet (disappointingly no longer clog-shod) as they shuffle past you. This has caused the denizens of the valley where I live to be ridiculously cheerful, and the pubs are filled to bursting with very red people who are amazingly drunk for 3pm in the afternoon. Dark Juan has barricaded himself inside Crow Cottage. I want nothing to do with these people and their “enjoyment”. Give me shadow, solitude and misery…
This desire for peace and being alone and miserable (to be fair I am a Northern man, so it is second nature) is Mrs Dark Juan’s fault, what with her current penchant for Southern Gothic music. Or as I have called it, Goth Country. I listen to a lot of it indirectly when she isn’t chortling along to the rabid enthusiasm of Mike Muncer on the Evolution of Horror podcast. However, it has to be said that Dark Juan is excitedly trying to contain his ardour and vivacity about Grendel’s Sÿster, being a German band that defies categorisation, but is currently spinning upon the pastoral Platter of Splatter ™ in its flower-decked arbour. Let us plough headlong into the music of Grendel’s Sÿster and I shall give you the benefit of my wisdom…
My immediate thoughts as to who Grendel’s Sÿster might be contemporaries of are the likes of Blood Ceremony, Purson, Helloween (Keeper of The Seven Keys, anyone?), Dio, Ten Years After, Mountain and the like. Very Trad Metal with admixtures of Doom, Acid Folk, Folk, Folk Rock, Krautrock, renaissance fair-styled music and ’70s Rock. And rather more than a pinch of Psychedelia for good measure… From the opening bar of ‘Boar’s Tusk Helmet’ with its long, glorious lead guitar line and crunchy delivery, Dark Juan was hooked into a universe of buxom maidens bursting out of their corseted frocks offering poultices, potions, favours, spells and themselves for a price, where men walk with sword strapped to their waist beneath a rough woollen jerkin and taverns are full of rowdy warriors drinking ale and mead while swearing oaths to long forgotten gods and goddesses of glen and waterfall…
‘The Plight of a Sorceror’ is an almighty tune that has whacked Dark Juan right in the guts and has kept right on kicking, what with its muscular, mustachioed riffing and Folk arrangement on the chorus, and Caro’s voice sweeping magnificently over it, with her no-nonsense delivery that reminds Dark Juan strongly of the likes of Donovan – a no-frills, direct delivery very much in the Folk style where singing along with the troubadour is traditional, whereas ‘Night Owl’s Beak’ is speedy and heavy with almost choral arrangements of the vocals in the chorus. It’s also jolly good fun.
‘Golden Key (Won’t Fit)’ is different again, an almost purely Folk Rock song that has lashings of noodling on the acoustic guitar and Caro breaking out the Mellotron, of all things! It is actually, as a song, a superb counterweight to the heaviness of the previous four tunes and allows the spell that Grendel’s Sÿster have woven over your soul to properly sink in and bend you to their inimitable will. It is a nice break in the Heavy Rock and has a bit of a nod to the Psychedelic movement of the late 60s as well. ‘The Fire That Lights Itself’ packs away the Mellotron and the acoustic instruments and starts with the REALLY good stuff again, with a twin guitar attack that morphs into Psychedelic Doom and Trad Metal combined together in some mystical ritual. Caro adopts a fairly threatening persona throughout the song, her vocals delivered with some venom and in a lower range than previously employed but the tune is so good you just go with the proverbial flow.
Wow, Dark Juan would give a testicle or two to hear Grendel’s Sÿster, Blood Ceremony and the much lamented and missed Purson on the same bill live. Although we still have Rosalie Cunningham releasing music, but that would have been a lineup for the ages!
It is evident across “Katabasis into the Abaton”, that Caro is singing about historical, mythological and philosophical themes that are relatable on a personal level but are viewed through the lens of Jungian psychology. If that’s too cerebral and philosophical for you, just lie back and let the sound of madness and a shitload of psilocybe wash over you. All I can say is that Dark Juan wants to neck a load of shrooms and listen to this record while tripping my balls off. Goddamn but it would be something special…
The production on the record is spectacularly good. It is tight enough to please the most discerning of music nerds, yet also expansive enough to allow the music to breathe and to let subtleties and light and shade flow through the distortion. It is muscular and yet somehow still delicate and allows Caro, as the focal point of the band to shine through. Now, some people might have a problem with her vocal delivery (Dark Juan doesn’t, I hasten to add) – she doesn’t do vibrato and frills. She sings cleanly and simply, and that’s what folk singers do, so it is in perfect keeping with the important Folk aspects of the music of Grendel’s Sÿster.
Dark Juan is blown away by this band. The version of the album that Dark Juan was provided with also has a bonus for the German speaking fans of the band in the whole album having been recorded in the German language, which Dark Juan feels is a really nice touch – even English-speaking me is enjoying the German language versions of the songs as well. The band themselves say they did it as a challenge to themselves and for the sheer fun of it.
What a fucking band Grendel’s Sÿster are. Heavy, Folky and very much musical storytellers (the lyrics are all fucking magnificent and once more make a mockery of the British education system by being in flawless English) in the Classic Metal mould, yet utterly unique and absolutely fucking brilliant.
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System (Das patentierte Blutspritzer-Bewertungssystem von Dark Juan. Hallo, meine deutschen Freunde! Nun, Ihr Land hat uns in Grendels Sÿster wirklich eine verdammt gute Band beschert, nicht wahr, Sie, Sie schlaue Leute? Wieder einmal werde ich daran erinnert, dass die wahre Sprache des Metal Deutsch ist. Es passt besser zur Musik als alles andere, auch nicht zur englischen! Ich habe wahrscheinlich gerade eine Menge völligen Unsinn geschrieben. Ich habe in der Schule nie Deutsch gelernt. Ich habe Französisch gelernt. Ich entschuldige mich, liebe deutsche Freunde, wenn ich Ihrer Sprache etwas Unaussprechliches angetan habe …) has no hesitation whatsoever in awarding Grendel’s Sÿster 999,999,999/10 for a record that is original, unique, truly special and outrageously entertaining.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Boar’s Tusk Helmet
02. The Plight of a Sorcerer
03. Rose Arbor
04. Night Owl’s Beak
05. Golden Key (Won’t Fit)
06. The Fire That Lights Itself
07. In Praise of Mugwort
08. Cosmogony
GERMAN LANGUAGE VERSION:
01. Eberzahnhelm
02. Die Bürde des Schwarzkünstlers
03. Rosenhag
04. Nachteulenschnabel
05. Güldenes Schlüsselein (klemmt)
06. Unentfacht Flammend
07. Beifußweise
08. Kosmogonie
LINE-UP:
Caro – Vocals
Tobi – Guitar
Simon – Bass
Till – Drums
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
