Maybe I just didn’t notice, but it appears to me as if more and more German Black Metal bands write their lyrics in a regional dialect. And as with every trend, the results are not always convincing. Fortunately, there are also some other examples: After Gráb (more or less recently) came up with a fantastic album entirely in Bavarian vernacular, SKARDUS give us an equally strong “counter piece” from the other end of the republic, featuring both Low German as well as Frisian lyrics along with a couple of standard German ones. Unless I am mistaken, that’s the first time the band from Kiel did that (the most recent (and epic) song prior to this album Der Turm was also in standard German, the same goes for the Demos I have access to).
Founded back in 2008, SKARDUS released three Demos as well as a split tape (with Plage), before they finally dropped their first full length album Stormriek after 15 years. During those 15 years, the group around front man and bassist Herr Jürgensen (who took over the vocals after Herr Sjörgens departure and who’s still well known for being a part of Drautran in the now distant past… I’m old...) played with quite a collection of great bands and slowly, but steadily built up a reputation in the (not only local) underground scene.
“Good things come to those who wait” isn’t accurate as often as the proverb suggests, but in this case it’s right on the money: Stormriek is a very strong and, especially for a debut, above-average mature album without any letdowns, let alone outright fails. Whereas other bands are often still in pursuit of a signature sound at this stage, SKARDUS are (of course) long ago past that stadium.
As much as the dialects of the lyrics vary between the songs, the entire album is quite rich in variety and does never feel like its lengthy or that there’s any filler. Already the opener Es Fällt Aus Dem Nichts, starting out as a Black Metal piece as “classical” as it gets, surprises with a sudden, yet perfectly fitting, pretty traditional Heavy/Thrash riff around the 3-minute-mark. Ins Tosende Grab instead breaks the double blast frenzy with a (sparingly) applied keyboard over dragging passages, resulting in an atmosphere that reminds of the early Scandinavian trailblazers of the genre. But the track that stands out most is without any doubt Det Schong von er Onnerbaantje (I’ve tried to find out what that funny sounding word means, but failed to find any exact references past this album. It’s most likely another name for “Oterbaanke” or “Onerbäänke”, some sort of gnome- or goblin-like, underground dwelling creatures of Frisian lore). Whatever it might be, the song is superb. Beginning as a driving Black Metal number, it transitions into a midtempo part overlaid by a nice guitar solo before culminating (strange to say that for the quietest part of the track, but it is as it is) in a passage with acoustic guitars, spoken words and later clean vocals. While something like that always poses the danger of quickly becoming very cheesy, SKARDUS have been able to avoid that and the part is instead the center piece and highlight of the track. Maybe I like it that much because it sounds as if influenced by early Helrunar material, in any case it’s very unusual that I like the one song with clean vocals of all things the most ;)
All the songs I did not point out specifically aren’t worse or less interesting by any means, there’s a lot of melodies and riffs to unpack for you.
I’ve got to admit that I was nowhere near as quick with writing this as I should have been. But despite that, the album has been in my current rotation ever since I’ve gotten the promo and gave it a first try – and it will most certainly remain there for quite a while after I’m done with the review. I recommend Stormriek to anyone who’s at least remotely into the genre, and I really hope that it won’t take SKARDUS until the next decade to release a follow-up.