[review] DRAKH – Bethlehem
Posted: July 24, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »
Do the names MZ.412 and Nordvargr say something to you? If so, you know who this Drakh is. If not, here’s a short introduction. Drakh is one of the masterminds behind the Industrial project MZ.412 and he frequently made collaborations with his fellow bandmember Nordvargr, resulting into Nordvargr/Drakh. Both are excellent projects and I highly recommend them to you if you haven’t heard of them before.
Since Drakh has an Industrial background and works with a lot of beats, noise and all that stuff I expected another release in that style or with that approach. The Nordvargr/Drakh releases always had their fair amount of Ambient influences but the clear Industrial touch was still there. On Bethlehem, that touch is almost gone. The only Industrial/Noise influence I could think of are the subtle noisy sounds and the rarely appearing beats. The closing track though, ‘Walk of Life’, is a traditional Industrial track with noisy beats and rhytmns. Besides that, Bethlehem is a dark and unsettling, yet calm and soothing album. In short, you could call Bethlehem Ambient Noise, but the Noise part is to be taken with a grain of salt. I still think it’s important to point it out, since it definitely defines the sound of this album.
Bethlehem seems to be a very personal album that he must have written mostly for himself. Titles like ‘View Over Tuscany’ and ‘On A Plane From Missoula’ indicate that he must’ve made songs about his travels around the world. Or maybe imaginary travels? I have no idea, but I like to think that he made all the songs with such memories in mind. But, since the album is pretty dark and somewhat sad in nature, how must these journey’s have been for him? Were they really memorable? Did some unexpected events happen? Did he make these journey’s during a hard period in his life? It leaves me with a lot of questions of what his intentions were with this album. To bring out certain feelings, or just to create a soundscape around his memories from his travels.
Despite all that this album leaves anything open for the imagination. It shows an entire different side from Drakh, a somewhat normal side. This album sounds really natural to me for some reason in comparison to his work in MZ.412 and Nordvargr/Drakh. Really ‘ human’, but still with a certain twist. This album was a pleasant surprise for me and stands out from anything else Drakh has done before with his other projects. I’m not sure if he’s done other solo albums but if so, I’d love to hear them.
Please support this artist and buy this album here: http://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=253186&ev=mb
