''Hünengrab im Herbst'' is the first
studio album by
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw ( lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an em ...
band
Band or BAND may refer to:
Places
*Bánd, a village in Hungary
* Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
* Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania
* Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, ...
Nagelfar. It was recorded in
Andy Classen
Andy Classen is a German record producer, sound engineer and musician.
Holy Moses
He began his career in 1980 as a guitarist for the German thrash metal band Holy Moses, fronted by his ex-wife Sabina Classen. In 1989 the band bought a house ...
's Stage-One-Studio in September 1997 and was released via Kettenhund Records in December 1997.
[''Nagelfar'']
, 3 April 2002, accessed on 22 July 2013.
Sound
On this album, Nagelfar combined Northern black metal influences with their own rhythmicity and influences from their
Teutonic thrash metal
Teutonic thrash metal is a regional scene of thrash metal music that originated within German-speaking countries during the 1980s. Along with Bay Area thrash metal, East Coast thrash metal, and Brazilian thrash metal, it was one of the major ...
background. The vocals were partly "crazily screamed", partly clean and "heroically sung". The production by Andy Classen, who had never worked with black metal bands before, gave them "a brutal yet 'true' sound".
[ The production, which was "extremely fat and punchy for black metal conditions",][ is considered "an important building stone for the success of this album".][ Drummer ]Alexander von Meilenwald Alexander von Meilenwald is a German multi-instrumentalist and vocalist known for his former band Nagelfar and his project The Ruins of Beverast.
At the age of 15, Meilenwald read an interview with Darkthrone member Nocturno Culto which fascinated ...
believes the band distanced themselves from the Scandinavian sound with ''Hünengrab im Herbst''; according to him, the album "did not sound as black metal did at that time".[Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann: ''Die Könige vom Westwall''. ''Die legendären Protagonisten von damals im exklusiven Interview''. In: ''Rock Hard'', no. 269, October 2009, pp. 88–93.]
Lyrics
''Hünengrab im Herbst'' lyrics deal with mythology and the depths of the human soul.[
]
Reception
In his review for the German ''Rock Hard'' magazine, Frank Stöver wrote that he would not have expected that progress after their two mediocre demo releases (he had reviewed the first one, ''Als die Tore sich öffnen'', in his own fanzine ''Voices from the Darkside'' while the second one, ''Jagd'', had been reviewed by Sascha Falquet[Sascha Falquet: ''Nagelfar''. ''Jagd (Demo ’96)''. In: ''Voices from the Darkside'', no. 10, 1997, p. 71.]) and that Nagelfar may "undoubtedly catapult themselves to the top of the German black metal scene".[Frank Stöver]
''Nagelfar''. ''Hühnengrab ''[sic!]'' im Herbst''
In: ''Rock Hard'', no. 127, accessed on 22 July 2013.
''Rock Hard'' journalist Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann called ''Hünengrab im Herbst'' "the most important German black metal album" and placed it on rank 16 of 25 on the magazine's list ''Die 25 wichtigsten Black-Metal-Alben aller Zeiten'' ('the 25 most important black metal albums of all times').[Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann: ''Nagelfar''. ''Hünengrab im Herbst''. In: ''Rock Hard'', no. 269, October 2009, p. 95.]
Track listing
#"Intro" – 0:26
#"Seelenland" – ''Land of the Souls'' – 5:21
#"Schwanengesang" – ''Swan Song'' – 14:16
#"Hünengrab im Herbst" – ''Dolmen
A dolmen () or portal tomb is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the early Neolithic (40003000 BCE) and were so ...
in the Autumn'' – 5:32
#"Bildnis der Apokalypse" – ''Portrait of the Apocalypse'' – 6:22
#" Srontgorrth (Das dritte Kapitel)" – ''Srontgorrth (The Third Chapter)'' – 9:34
#"Der Flug des Raben" – ''The Flight of the Raven'' – 14:00
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunengrab Im Herbst
1997 debut albums
Nagelfar albums
Albums produced by Andy Classen