Island is an absolutely punishing German trio formed in 2003 and comprised of members of Woburn House and Klabautamann. Orakel brings together two EP's that were recorded in 2003-2004, and which were previously only available as CD-R's and traded amongst fans of the band. Due to an overwhelming demand Vendlus Records decided to have them remixed and remastered, which comes together to make up this nine song album.
To simply classify the music of Orakel as being doom or dark metal wouldn't really do it justice because the band displays a remarkable knack for injecting different textures and influences to underlie their obvious, sonic brutality. The deep and menacing vocals of Christian Kolf (who also doubles on guitar) are offset with clean passages that make for a perfect balance. Speaking of balance, Kolf and fellow band mates Florian Tokya (bass, acoustic guitar) and Patrick Schroder (drums, synthesizer) do a fantastic job of changing up the tempos throughout. Nothing is straightforward as the listener is pummeled over the head by the sheer brutality one minute, only to be lead into moments of dream like, tranquil atmospherics the next. The trio shifts from pure monolithic riffage to aspects of post rock, doom, and intersperses it with ambient textures, sometimes all within the same song. This is clearly evident on tracks "Serenity" and "Ueber Dem Thal".
All in all Orakel will keep the listener fully engaged for the full duration of the album which clocks in at almost 60 minutes. I don't know what the future holds for Island or even if there are plans for them to record again, but it certainly would be a damn shame if a follow up to Orakel wasn't in the works somewhere down the line.
Track Listing
1) Journey Through The Jewel
2) River Source
3) Grund
4) Orakel
5) Ueber Dem Thal
6) Serenity
7) The White Ghoul
8) Veritas
9) Island
10) Bonus
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