Genre: Black metal
Origin: Germany
Released: 2009
Website: -
Label: Ashen Productions
Uploaded: 09.05.10

I'm rapidly becoming more and more bored of all these 'depressive' black metal bands popping up, I'm even growing a bit weary of the bands I used to like. It seems like any half-arsed one-man project with two repeated riffs, a whaling and nagging scream, sounding as though recorded in a closet to boot, means it's depressive. And there are loads of such projects. So I was a bit skeptical when I received Impuls, but since the promo sheet promised it to contain bizarre vocals and extremely varied and thrilling song structures I figured I have to at least give it a decent chance. After listening through it some times now I have to say it's not very unique, but it's at least not without hope.
The opener Nuancen/disparitäten: das r-kapitel (whatever the hell that means) would probably be my favourite track. Starting out with a chilling lead guitar and a fairly audible and very soothing bass line, it gets off to a good start. Vocally it's quite harsh, almost industrial-like, leaving behind the regular high-pitched squeals of the style. After a few minutes the drum tempo speeds up, kicking it into full gear, while still having the same kind of soothing and chilling riffing. It's a great opening track, albeit certainly nothing new it's still very good. But when the first riff to Den laufstall zu brechen... begins I start to lose interest; it feels like I've heard this many times before. The track just doesn't deliver the same kind of atmosphere, and the vocals start to sound a little too howling on occasion. Unfortunately that pretty much sums up the listening experience; some damn good parts, some not-so-interesting ones. For instance the guitar line in the beginning of Der begriff der reinheit, getränkt von gräberschweiss is pretty cool and the vocals are truly sharp and grim, whereas the entire Der maskierte blinde outright suck.
I'm really having trouble getting a depressive vibe off of them; it leaves me unaffected. And that's gotta be the worst effect such an album can have on its listener, but I really don't feel the weight of the world coming down on my shoulders, like I wanna slit my wrists, go on a murdering rampage or whatever. There's nothing truly wrong with the album, I can certainly appreciate the fact that they've gone for some unorthodox drum patterns, varied tempos and a harsher vocal style, but in its whole I still feel like I've heard tons of the same stuff before. The production is good, quite cold and rough while still retaining some sense of audibility. And I'm sure some people will really love this stuff, but it's not my kind of black metal.

Tracklist:
01. Nuancen/disparitäten: das r-kapitel
02. Den laufstall zu brechen...
03. Verheissungsvolle felder, geschutzt von ebenjenem eis
04. The box
05. Der begriff der reinheit, getränkt von gräberschweiss
06. Großstadtlyrik
07. Der maskierte blinde