Tag Archives: folter records

Underground Sounds: Schrat – Alptraumgänger

Label: Folter Records
Band: Schrat
Origin: Germany

An ‘Alptraum’ is a nightmare, a bad dream. This makes an ‘Alptraumgänger’ one that travels these nightmare-realms, lives in their dark and surreal realities. For Schrat, this is a place intertwined with the myth of nature, the old spirits and darkness of death, at least that’s the story conveyed on their latest album.

The band, from the south of the German lands, has been around for a number of 15 years and released a number of classic black metal albums. Their attire is much as you would expect from a black metal band, but their leanings seem to be towards a more pagan, natural mythology. Yet, this is filled with harrowing feelings and desolation.

Uncanny laughter greets you on the intro, afore the black metal blast wave simply blows over you. This is nothing but the all-consuming fire of guitars, drums, and base. You find yourself dragged into the nightmare realm of Schrat on the overwhelming title track. t a blistering pace we run screaming through their realm with the high-paced tunes, that hold a sound that seems to surround you like a dense and dark forest. The barking screams of Dragg cut through anything and always manage to find you on ‘Gräberland’.

There’s definitely something distinctive about Schrat as well. They may relish the traditional black metal sound, but it lacks the cold and clamour of the more northern bands. There’s a simple immersion by overwhelming to the sound. Who knows, it might be the Augsburg environment and it’s geographic location that shapes songs like ‘Wolf ist erwacht, Adams Sohn zerfetzt’, which has a surprisingly rocking riff going on. With a middle-of-album outro and intro, it’s like a whole different record a moment later.

On ‘Knochenkult’, we turn the corner to a more stripped down, raw sound. Taking up a mid-pace thread with a punky beat, the gritty and dirty side of Schrat comes out in the remaining tracks. Particularly worth checking out is the buzzsaw-driven ‘Kriegsgericht’, with mighty sneers and growls on the vocals. Schrat delivers an excellent burst of black metal on this release, well worth giving a spin.