Chairete Daimones (Be Greeted, Demons) is the first album (of largely) new material from Austrian project Allerseelen in four years. The CD offers up hefty selection of new music that focuses in on the projects highly distinctive brand of Folk & Industrial music, which often filters in other musical genres- such as bleak new wave/ post-punk, traditional Germanic folk, world music influences, avant-garde pop, jazz, neo-classical, and beyond.

Artwork & presentation has always been a big part of Allerseelen releases- so this recent CD follows that trend. As we’re presented with a glossy digipak, that features a glossy inlay booklet. The front cover takes in a modern pantheon like building, photographed through trees at nighttime- with the other album pictures taking snow-covered statues, statue hands, bag covered poles, more pictures of the nighttime pantheon, and night time photos of statues. We also get full lyrics- in both German & English.

As we’ve come to expect with Allerseelen albums you certainly get a lot of material here- seventeen tracks, and a total runtime of seventy-four minutes- making this over an original double vinyl album length. Of the seventeen tracks, only two are new versions of old songs- so you certainly get your value for money. As Allerseelen albums go Chairete Daimones -sees the appearance of a fair few guest singers, so that straight away gives many of the tracks a slightly different flavour- though sonically they all clearly have that distinctive modern Allserseelen flavour- bringing togeather tight & stark electro beats, weaved & creative layers of instrumental detail, and a fairly prolific use of that sort wondering  ‘n’ bleak post-punk like bass guitar torches that have appeared on the last few albums.

For the most part, the album has a rapid,  urgent to galloping pace- and I’ll detail a few of my standouts moments. Track two "Anthrazit"- brings together coolly reverbed goth punk vocals, with tight & cold beats, swirling synth buzz, and the bounding post-punk bass. "Hobellied" finds mournful tipped through-rapid Germanic male vocals moving against wondering bass guitar, simmering & sorrowful string hacks, and snapping/ bounding beats. Track seven "Ludwig" is a wonderful tight-yet moody blend of dizzying-at-times discordant weaves of militant string samples, brooding bass hums, clip-clopping percussion detail, and another stark Germanic male vocal.  "Antonin Artaud"- finds rapid & tense female spoken german fed over a dizzying & disorientating patchwork of scrubbing guitar, spinning clean ethic strum, wondering bass, and detailed beat-work featuring whirling, hissing and  neck sliding textures. The title track is a hazy blend of romantic string harmonics, throbbing techno synth drift, galloping bass, chiming guitar work, muffled German male vocals, and a mix of organic and electronic drum work.

While there’s not a terrible amount of departure on Chairete Daimones from the band previously work - it’s another consistent album - which sees them refining, and subtle adjusting their trademark sound in a worthy & often creative manner. If you already a long time fan of the project I think you’ll be most satisfied with the album, and if you've never sampled the bands work Chairete Daimones - is a good enough place to start, I’d just take it in piecemeal form, as the whole seventy-four minutes could be a tad overwhelming & unbalancing for newbies.