This release sat on my desk for quite some time, simply because I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. The Austrian band Konfession, hailing from the beautiful historic city of Vienna, originally formed back in 2008, yet it wasn’t until 2019 that their first demo saw the light of day. Their debut album, Rural Hypostasis, followed in 2023 but completely passed me by at the time.
With Im Baumdunkel des Äthers, the band did manage to catch my attention at first, mainly thanks to its absolutely stunning cover artwork. Musically, however, Konfession failed to fully convince me. How to describe it? For a band that has been active for so long, one would expect more than what comes pouring out of the speakers here. Out of curiosity, I also checked what fellow reviewers had to say, and in many ways their opinions mirrored my own impressions.
Some of the tracks sound like a strange hybrid of stoner and black metal, but executed in such a way that it feels more like a demo recording than a proper full-length album. And that’s without even touching on the production, which is practically non-existent. Now, I’m a huge fan of bands like Forbidden Temple and Perverted Ceremony, who are hardly known for technical finesse or crystal-clear production either, yet they compensate for this with an atmosphere that perfectly embraces their imperfections.
Konfession, unfortunately, lack that atmosphere entirely. The band attempts ideas within their songs that — unless played with extreme tightness, which they are not — simply fail to reach their intended goal. The end result is a chaotic mishmash that misses the mark completely. There seems to be an attempt to evoke the 1990s, but it is done in a clumsy and unconvincing manner.
Stylistically, it is also nearly impossible to pin down what the band is aiming for. The music jumps from black-metal-infused stoner to something resembling black ’n’ roll, only to veer off again into second wave black metal territory. It feels unfocused and scattered, with the band seemingly pulling in all directions at once.
I am generally very much in favor of magazines trying to portray bands as positively as possible, but in this case I can’t help but feel that Konfession would have benefited from spending another year in the rehearsal room. Refining the songs and saving up for a better studio would have done this release a world of good.
Ultimately, this album once again proves that these days, absolutely everything ends up being pressed on vinyl — whether or not the material is truly ready for that step.
60/100
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