From the German vastlands, Schattenfall comes with their debut album "Schatten in Schwarz". I am glad to admit that they're yet another atmospheric black metal band which really caught my attention recently and whose music I liked a lot. Yes, it sounds really damn well and I spent some nice few hours when listening to Schattenfall. It looks like everything on "Schatten in Schwarz" sounds proper, Schattenfall came up with five incredibly well written and arranged songs and the performance as well as production doesn't lack anything. So, even though I had no idea what to expect from this German band in the first place, I was positively surprised by their album and can only recommend it to you all.

Actually, Germany has one of the best scenes, when speaking of atmospheric black metal. Helrunar are one of my favourite bands ever, but there's also Sun of the Sleepless, Secrets of the Moon, Geist, Lunar Aurora... Schattenfall name should be mentioned among all these great acts also, because this is the same quality and the same greatness. Maybe one the reasons why I got hooked so quickly by "Schatten in Schwarz" is because the music is incredibly memorable. Sure, it has that blackened, sinister aura all over it and the basis of the music is harsh, cold black metal. But Schattenfall has great ability to compose capturing melodies, interesting and catchy passages and build dark and vicious, yet melancholic and sorrowful atmosphere. Everything sounds just right here, even the way keyboards work together with guitars. Once more I am surprised also how the German lyrics work well with such cold, misanthropic black metal. Even the fact that Schattenfall limits their music mainly to doomy, slow tempo doesn't disturb – firstly, because it helps to achieve and increase that dark aura and secondly, because there's too much interesting stuff going on to even start to sound monotonous. The only time the music really speeds up is in the song called "Angst meiner Fantasie", which is also why this track sounds more aggressive and dynamic. Then, never in any other songs did I feel a need to break the one dimensional, slower tempo, it never let me think that the music becomes tiring. Besides, "Schatten in Schwarz" is slightly over 30 minutes long, so there's no time for boredom. Al in all, I had a very good experience with this debut album, I can only wait for more music from this German duo... Impressive.

Standout tracks: "Angst meiner Fantasie", "Schatten in Schwarz"

Verdict: 80/100