About two and a half years after the last release, Eïs, as far as I’m concerned one of the best bands dedicated to the genre, also taking into account what they did in the past with the moniker Geïst, come back to show themselves to black metal fans. Stillstand Und Heimkehr is an ep that, with its twenty minutes of duration, is the right content for those who were waiting for new material from Alboin, who today is accompanied by guitarist Abarus, his companion also in Frendal. Eïs belong to the category of bands that never betray and never disappoint, and if in An Den Schwarz Besandeten Gestaden the lapping of the waves that acts as a background to rarefied piano notes creates the right pathos, before the song explodes and shows us the evocative and dramatic face of the duo, the title track, inspired by the painting The Wanderer on the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich, offers inspired passages of lead guitar that rest on rhythms more cadenced, before further rhythmic variations preparatory to a new unstoppable crescendo at the end, a sort of oppressive paroxysm that is well suited to the introspective themes exhibited even more at this juncture. The only reason of recrimination is, therefore, the fact that Stillstand Und Heimkehr offers only two tracks, as splendid as they are, because this is a band of absolutely higher level than the average, of which we would like to hear more frequently new compositions that often border on the state of the art in the interpretation of black metal.
2018 – Lupus Lounge / Prophecy Productions
Mournful Sounds 
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