Agrypnie are a black metal band from Germany and this is their seventh album.
Erg contains 54 minutes of music, and is brought to us by members of The Negative Bias and Perchta, (as well as many others). Agrypnie’s music is of a high quality level, and Erg showcases the band in a good light throughout.
Agrypnie play a textured and detailed form of black metal, with blunt harsh vocals that snarl and rage. The music mixes blackened aggression, post-black resplendence, post-rock nuance, and progressive shading, making for songs that paint across a broad canvass.
Erg sounds like a true blending of black metal hostility and post-metal worldbuilding, albeit one that’s presented in a predominantly post-black framework. The songs blur boundaries as they craft their atmospheric layers, providing the listener with a journey that’s both harsh and expressive. It’s an aggressive base that Agrypnia build upon, but they do so with melodic colour and well-structured texture. It’s a mood-rich album, with a few different flavours spread out across the tracks. Some of the music sounds quite earthy and stripped back, whereas at other times it can be more complex and sophisticated.
Highlights are many. Meer Ohne Wasser is a great example of spectral atmosphere that builds up to an epic conclusion that’s powerfully executed. Blut – Teil I is a cinematic intro that, unusually for me, I could easily have had be twice the length. Blut – Teil II then explodes suddenly, with a sound that exists somewhere between blackgaze fragility and the grim blackened cold. Geister is another standout song. It’s a piece that develops well as it unfolds, crafting an evocative soundscape. The album ends well with Unter Sand, a work that fuses emotive aggression and melodic beauty, to good effect.
This is my first time listening to Agrypnie, and I enjoyed Erg. Agrypnie have created an album that has instant appeal straight away, but with depths that call out to be explored at length.
Highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 