Here's a very different type of album from what I usually get to review. Gruenewald is a solo artist by the name of Christian Kolf. He asked the help of drummer Claus Schulte for the skin beating duties. Then on "Funeral Winds", Oliver Weiskopf contributed a guitar solo and Jan Buckard landed his voice. Christian wrote all the lyrics except for "Tails" (the only track having English lyrics), which were written by Joe Henderson.
This is not metal by any means, although it does not prevent the music from being somber, very somber. Christian has done the lyrics in his native German tongue, but on II music speaks louder than words, so to speak. I love the desperate/melancholic/depressive feel that bands like The Doors and Pink Floyd had in their artistic approach and those emotions are present throughout this disc. Dark, ambient, depressive, melancholic and melodic are all the words that come to mind while listening those lengthy compositions. Christian has been creating a lot of atmosphere not only by writing dark and moderate passages combined with his tenebrously low vocals, but also by adding long musical breaks. Those melodious moments are filled with delicate arpeggios, leads, solos and ambient keyboards."Geist" has a depressive vibe with rain samplings and clean guitar work. "Zwei Namen" comes in with more of those clean guitar parts, arpeggios and nostalgic tones. On track # 3, "Funeral Winds", an almost "happy song", a Pink Floyd-ish guitar solo could be heard and enjoyed. Closing song, "Tails", is another good piece of darkness and the dissonant arpeggios are transcending a twisted / deranged atmosphere.
II is definitely a tasty Germanic opus of ambient darkness that is not afraid of being melodic as well.
Track listing:
1 – Geist
2 – Zwei Namen
3 – Funeral Winds
4 – Tails
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