Carach Angren ken ik nog niet zolang maar ben er al helemaal verslaafd aan. Heerlijke muziek wat gewoon blijft hangen. Neem vooral de moeite om op hun myspace te luisteren naar het nummer ‘a strange presence near the woods’, en de andere nummers natuurlijk. En het mooie is, ze komen gewoon uit Nederland. Hun biografie:
Classical black metal telling remarkable tales. Legends in symphonic compositions. Romanticism in its coldest form combined with bombastic thrash metal. Carach Angren is like a broadly arranged, melodic and atmospheric black metal theatre.
Carach Angren (“irons jaws”) was formed in 2003 in the southern regions of Limburg, The Netherlands. Two members of black/thrash metalband Vaultage gathered behind the scenes of this band to share their passion for legends and black metal through music. When the curtain fell for Vaultage, they were ready to take bigger steps.
The band chose a classical, storytelling approach in the broad genre: their sound is characterized by symphonic arrangements. Why? Because this element is the perfect score for the stories that are told. Since their first EP, “The Chase Vault Tragedy”, the band has worked with concepts instead of separate songs. The Chase-vault on this EP is a 17th century family vault on the island Barbados. Each time a burial was added to the vault, people found the older graves disordered and disturbed. Investigations did not lead to any logical cause, which raised speculations of a possible paranormal cause. Carach Angren picked up on this story and brought it to life in their unique way through lyrics and music.
Their fascination for the paranormal resurfaces on their second self-produced release, “Ethereal Veiled Existence”. Another remarkable tale, based on the strange occurrences around one of the most spectacular photographs in history: the photo portrays a ghost, ‘The Brown Lady’, situated on a stairway in Raynham Hall in Norfolk (England). It is said to be the irrefutable evidence of a ghost residing in Raynham Hall. Several statements from visitors of Raynham Hall, written down long before the photo was taken in 1936, seem to only confirm the legend.
In 2007, independent label MADDENING MEDIA picked up the haunting echoes of these well-received demos. They granted abode to the Dutch wraiths of Carach Angren and decided it was time for their first full length. Recordings took place in July/August and November of 2007, and the album was completed in January 2008.
Mystically entitled “Lammendam”, their latest creation tells the legend of “de Lammendam”, a saga from their homebase of Limburg about the ghost of a lady in a white dress. Carach Angren transformed the eye-witnessed myth to sound in a way that sends chills down every listener’s spine. “Lammendam” is definitely not suitable for the faint of heart: the opulently symphonic, highest-speed songs create a unique and gloomily tense atmosphere that no listener can elude. The conjured ghost of the “Lady in White” has been haunting stores around the world since its release on April 18.
Aside from combining atmosphere with tight production on CD, Carach Angren knows how to bring the legends to life on stage – not merely by the theatrical atmosphere, but for an important part by a good deal of old-fashioned thrash metal. Yes, there’s the dark clothing and characteristic make-up, but Carach Angren does not omit incredibly tight metal for some good old headbanging. The band strives to introduce as many people as possible to the new CD while live audiences are taken away into the world of Carach Angren.
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