The third full length of the Austrian Anomalie could be the picklock to access a wider audience, thanks to a series of improvements compared to previous works. Meanwhile it should be remembered that, despite its initial nature of solo project of Marrok, given the need to perform live the band has become such in all respects in the period between the release of Refugium and that of Visions: as often happens, the ability to deal only with the composition and the instruments of its competence has allowed the mastermind on duty to offer a product cared for in detail and certainly of high quality. The post black of Anomalie brings with it a wave of melancholy and bitterness that is well diluted in the course of the seven visions of Marrok, able to make the genre in a balanced way and, in its own way, elegant, also accomplice the production entrusted to a heavy name like Markus Stock, whose familiarity with this type of sound is out of the question. The album enjoys a really excellent guitar work, often in the foreground in laying bare the most emotional side of the various compositions, which also from the lyrical point of view express an unusual depth, going to fathom different and often controversial aspects of our earthly existence. It even becomes difficult to point out a specific track as a banner of Visions, because all are of equal level and worthy of being heard within the overall design of the work; honestly, certain melodic lines in Illumination and Starless Night are very difficult to remove but, really, in every track there is much to drink for those who appreciate this modus operandi. It remains only to mention, in One With The Soil, a part played by Heike Langhans of Draconian to pose as a worthy closure of a work as beautiful as amazing, a true manifesto of artistic sensitivity and compositional Christian “Marrok” Brauch.

2017 – AOP Records