Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #282596 in Digital Music Album
• Released on: 2008-11-21
• Running time: 3251 seconds

Customer Reviews

Traversing further into their Experimental sound
Orplid has released yet another quality album, while further straying away from the folk genre. This album has many experimental, post-industrial, highly electronic tracks. That may not necessarily sound appealing, especially if you liked their old neofolk style. But I promise this is much more interesting and alluring than their old style - even though I still like that too. I find myself listening to this album, and "Sterbendyr Satyr" WAY more than I ever listened to the first two. I think they are almost paralleling exactly what Death In June did with "Nada," only; of course, this is much more modern sounding because Nada came out in the 80's. So, if you're a Death in June fan who enjoyed their industrial sounding albums, you'll most likely love this.

Most songs here are pretty much 100% electronic, synthesized, including the percussion, from what I can tell. The vocals are both male and female - all in German as usual - and are also enhanced to contain a heavy reverb, as on the last album. Many of the songs actually have a sort of creepy vibe to them (the German certainly adds to that effect). The creepiest song is probably "Schlaf im Mohn." The weird thing is, as creepy as most tracks are, they make you want to dance at the same time. I have to say, the rhythms, even though they are synthesized, are quite genius. They have a very clean sound to them and simply have great arrangements adding a certain uniqueness to Orplid's overall sound. There are some war-inspired samples here, at least that's what they sound like to me.

The three songs named "..." are probably intended to be interludes, (they contain no real lyrics) but I think they're some of the best tracks on the album.
The first one mostly consists of angelic, operatic style vocals over an atmospheric melody. It's a very sublime, almost fantasy-sounding little treasure.
The second one is perhaps my favorite track on the entire album. It just has a wonderful keyboard harmony with a swift, shifting electronic rhythm. A second, faster keyboard melody is introduced and slowly progresses to be the prominent sound toward the end. I invite you to listen for yourself; words simply cannot describe its strange and wonderful beauty.
The third one isn't as good - in fact, it is very annoying. It contains an extremely prominent sample that keeps repeating over and over. The actual music in this track isn't even noticeable - it is pretty much just one chord being strummed and is even more repetitive anyway. Luckily, it is only a minute and a half long. I assure you, it's the only bad track here.
The very last track, "Falken-Eid II" could almost be considered another interlude, or outro. It's got a unique, relaxing melody, the instrumentation almost representing a harpsichord, unlike most of the rest of the album, and a peaceful female duo. It ends the album with a peaceful, enjoyable composure, desperately pulling the listener back for another spin...

I really love the direction Orplid are going. I would say maybe 5% of this album still has folk influences lingering around - I think there's some strumming on two songs. I would have never thought I'd like something like this so much, but it is extremely well done. Orplid isn't just fooling around with fancy equipment - they are fine musicians creating wonderful art that is much under-appreciated.