“Great atmospheric black metal often evokes some element of nature: trees, lakes, mountains, etc. This album from Germany’s Schattenfall immediately conjures images of epic thunderstorms, followed by a seemingly endless torrent of rain cleansing the landscape of the listener’s mind. You can tell a lot of thought went into making the record into a cohesive experience, from the title (which translates simply into “Shadow in Black”) to the album art. In a world of now very tired atmospheric black metal tropes, Schattenfall is the great flood that resets the world.
- Decibel Magazine
"I paid attention to the debut album of the German band Schattenfall because their line-up includes two former members (Vladimir Bauer and Yurii Kononovwould) of the band White Ward, whose brilliant debut album Futility Report I had the pleasure of premiering earlier this year. The third member is vocalist/lyricist Ole Heidenblut. Their debut album, released at the end of October, is Schatten in Schwarz.
Much like the Vrångbild album, I was quickly hooked by the first track streaming on Bandcamp, which here is the opening song, “Im Sommer ging ich fort“. It’s an atmospheric piece, and the atmosphere is one of pain and grief. A dense, gloomy haze of guitar sound envelops the track, while a slow, seductive guitar melody and deep roaring vocals add further textures to the experience.
The drum progressions become more animated (and thundering) on the following song “Angst meiner Fantasie“, and the song as a whole seems more intensely despairing — the guitar melodies here are searing, as are the excruciatingly tormented sounds of the vocals.
In the tracks that follow, Schattenfall introduce more variations on their depressive theme, with more prominent ambient keyboard layers here and there, and some staggeringly heavy, dirge-like passages mixed with bright flares of soaring, rippling melody that are beautifully tragic and haunting.
The title track, in particular, has a mythic quality, with quiet, wistful harmonized chords providing the prelude to an emotionally heart-bursting climax. And “Die Klagen von Grau” brings in deep, clean vocals as one of many accents in a deeply sad but intensely affecting closing track. "
- Islander, NO CLEAN SINGING (Nov 2017 )
Purchase the CD via Wolfspell:
wolfspellrecords.bandcamp.com/album/schatten-in-schwarz