Falkenstein — Heiliger Wald

Falkenstein make offten sombre and ancient tinged yet  memorable Germanic folk, this is the southern German collectives first album and it’s wonderfully focused and rewarding bringing to mind the more sombre side Sturmpercht.

For the most part the songs here stay focused on haunting, proud often powerful and beautiful crystalline acoustic strums &  picks with deep male Germanic often doubled up vocals on top. They Complement the guitars and vocals with slight flurries of  flute, bobs of accordion, organ drone and the odd earthy bass line. There’s also the odd fold of clear and passion guitar solo here and there too. The tracks pace goes from quite up-beat going towards folk rock strums & Germanic sombre beer stomps down to more crystalline and lonesome picks or winter forestall walk strums.

All in all an rich, melodic yet sombre debut album that welcomes Falkenstein as yet another band to watch out for in the superb German and Austrian folk scene, But hurry if you want a copy as this gem is only ltd to 300 copies!