Review: Carach Angren - This Is No Fairytale
By Eric Perzanowski, Staff Writer
[Season of Mist; 2015]
Rating: 7.5/10
Key Tracks: “Two Flies Flew into a Black Sugar Cobweb,” “There’s No Place Like Home,” “Possessed by a Craft of Witchery”
Dutch symphonic black metal trio Carach Angren has garnered quite an impressive and dedicated following. This is credited in large part to the band’s unique theatrical approach and its ability to tell stories, mostly about paranormal hauntings, through its songs.
Carach Angren labels itself “horror black metal,” a term that accurately represents a lot of what the ensemble is about. Between the eerie samplings and “skits” of haunting lyrical themes, this outfit is the musical equivalent of a well-done horror film.
This Is No Fairytale is a Brothers Grimm-like album of twisted fables. Sticking with this theme, the intro track to the project is “Once Upon A Time” and the closer is “Tragedy Ever After.”
The second track, “There’s No Place Like Home,” adds some realism to the group’s usual themes of horror, as it touches on the terrors of drug addiction and abuse. Overall, this piece stands out, and as the first “real” song (an instrumental prelude leads into this number), it grasps the listener into this world that Carach Angren has created.
The theatrical approach to This Is No Fairytale and Carach Angren’s music in general is that many cuts play out as recitations of short stories. The narration and implied dialogue are all voiced by vocalist Seregor. He uses several different vocal approaches besides his raspy growl for the various characters that appear in narration and exposition. Between the varied voice styles and the conviction and ability to sell the dramatic aspects, Seregor is a great frontman for this band.
“Two Flies into a Black Sugar Cobweb” is a great example of theatricality. As the track progresses, it really feels as if this entire story has been played out in full. There is a lot of versatility within the music and as a whole, this song goes various places.
Lyrically, this record can be polarizing. The writing is a bit simplistic and at times can come off as cheesy, which obviously may turn some people off. However, this lyrical approach does fit well with the cinematic style and storytelling tendencies.
The symphonic elements play a more complementary role to the music, as opposed to other prominent symphonic extreme metal bands like Fleshgod Apocalypse and Dimmu Borgir that have more emphasis on a grand, orchestral sound.
Overall, This Is No Fairytale may not top Where the Corpses Sink Forever, the
preceding Carach Angren LP (which would be no easy feat). However, the interesting execution of the “twisted fairytale” concept, great use of dramatics and solid instrumentation make this an album that holds up to the standard of the rest of Carach Angren’s discography.
