After sitting through the laborious three-minute intro to Kratein’s Trauma album I was filled with trepidation about what I might be in for with this music. The German band is described as ‘black ambient metal’, and that lends itself to many visions and anticipations. When “II” seeps into the earphones I’m still unsure, but at least we’re underway.

The incessant noise that appears well off-key stayed in my head for an hour after hearing it, so I wasn’t all that impressed with what I was hearing. I hear the familiar harsh vocal that attempts to breathe evil into the ear drums, yet only manages to cause a few moments of forced piqued interest, giving way to total abandonment of hope that this will be a memorable CD. Its flat, uninspired atmosphere is reminiscent of a million post-Filosofem bands that want so badly to attach their names to the black metal tag but simply don’t fall within the absolutely necessary lines of musical tangibility. Widely stagnant in the atmospheric areas, I hear no true ambience here save for some causal guitar chords that a million black metal bands are using that continuously make me physically ill. Granted, Kratein isn’t that bad, but they really aren’t that great in this effort either. The talent is there, but it’s buried under a sea of plasticity posing as aura and encompassment that is too criminally transparent. I hate to descend on a band’s creative energy so brutally, but at this point what else can you say short of screaming “ENOUGH!!” from the highest peak around?

An unfortunate casualty in this music is the ambience that should be created in the arduous pursuit of darkness and foreboding but simply doesn’t have the genuine seal. The haunting acoustic breakdown in “IV” was a wonderful stop-and-breathe portal that was the best part of the CD for me; it’s this very solemnity that should have driven this CD to higher points. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say I would have rather heard 35-minutes of acoustic sorrowful passages than contrived, borrowed passion. I’m also hearing a lot of this post-black metal sound in the music ala Alcest, Fen or Agalloch, which seems to be the running trend these days. I’m not outright accusing Kratein of such bland thievery, but the elemental similarities are far too egregious to ignore at this point. I will say that “VI” is somewhat of a game-saver for me with its fast-paced bleakness and formulaic, but interesting structure. It shows the band can instill some rank blackness from its musical arsenal.

This isn’t necessarily a bad album in the basic sense of the word, but it is definitely an underwhelming collective. I can and do expect more from a band attempting this style of metal music because, in all honesty, spotting the lack of total vision is too easy for this sub-genre.

TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

1.  I
2.  II
3.  III
4.  IV
5.  V
6.  VI

Total playing time:  35:16

Release Date: February 6, 2010
Label: Folter Records

Kratein - Trauma

Reviewer: Chris

September 30, 2011