Review by Vladimir on January 2, 2023.

Old Night from Croatia has been going strong with their mournful serenades for 7 years now, and they just keep spreading their tunes of sweet sorrows with each new release. The band dabbles in melodic doom metal with progressive songwriting, romantic and sorrowful lyrics that altogether craft a very bittersweet musical feel. Their third and latest full-length album Ghost Light, released on March 4th via Solitude Productions, marks the conclusion of their concept trilogy which began with their first album Pale Cold Irrelevance. Has this latest entry in the band's discography successfully concluded the trilogy?

This album has a very moody and depressing autumn-like atmosphere that manifests itself in its songwriting and bittersweet lyrics. The first 'Strange Lights On The Moor' sets up the mood with its slow and clean music with a light guitar solo, before deciding to hit you in the feels with the second track 'Sacred South', from then on you will be pushed into a world of dying trees where spirits of nature watch over you from the distance. Ghost Light certainly doesn't hold back to express any feelings of sorrow in its songs consisted of slow, melodic and progressive doom metal riffs with extra flavor of clean chords, beautiful melancholic guitar solos, good dose of heaviness and melodies on tracks 'Daughter Of Summer Dawning' and 'Sworn To Deviltry', and clean singing vocals with growl back vocals, which are not present on tracks 'Sweet Little Sorrows' and 'No Solace'. The last two aforementioned tracks have a more lightweight feel when it comes to their overall execution, with less musical heaviness in its riffs and solos, opting for a cleaner approach in both riffs and lyrics, that will give you time to recover before emotions continue to hit hard. On my first listening of Ghost Light, I said that this album would give later Opeth a run for their money, and I still stand by that statement after listening to it again, because I think that Opeth haven't been capable or successful in writing such powerful and meaningful songs for the past 10 years since their style shifted. To give credit where credit is due, what stands out on this album besides its songwriting is the quality sound production and the cover art by artist "All Things Rotten", who successfully translated the autumn ambient of Ghost Light.

Ghost Light to me doesn't possess any fatal flaw or lack of proper musical expression, it's nothing more than a good swing of emotions that doesn't disappoint from start to finish. The album is wonderful and melancholic at the same time, giving this concept a good ending and leaving an open door for a new story that will be told in their future releases. If you're into melodic doom metal with a romantic and melancholic vibe, I highly suggest you check out Old Night, especially their latest album Ghost Light that managed to captivate its true beauty with tracks 'Sacred South', 'Daughter Of Summer Dawning', 'Cognitive Dissonance' and 'Sworn To Deviltry'.

Rating: 8.6 out of 10

Review by Felix on June 2, 2024.

I like the program and the diligence of Germany’s Purity Through Fire label. But this does not mean that they are perfect. Okay, this should be a matter of preference of course, because we all know that nobody is perfect except my local butcher who sells these fantastic meatballs. But that’s just an aside. So let’s get to the 99.9% of mankind who are not perfect. Aussichtslos represent the defectiveness of this overwhelming majority. They are not alone in this, but here we have to focus on the crudely titled Schicksalstotschlag, a word that does not exist in the German language. We know “Schicksalsschlag” (stroke of fate), but this term was seemingly too weak for the Austrians and so they added “tot” in the centre of the word. So now we have a kind of “deadly stroke of fate”, okay… Seems to be a black metal pun.

Aussichtslos are offering their third album and the first thing that triggers me are the vocals. The lead vocals are always close to hysteria and they sound very affected, pretty shrill and not natural in any way. Of course, clean vocal is no wide spread tool in black metal, but this voice of the guy at the microphone is simply feeble and does not reflect the force black metal should possess. Anyhow, let’s praise his shrieks. Compared with the somehow medieval and totally miserable choir in 'Im Schützengraben' and (not much better) in 'Gotteswahn', the lead vocals are pure gold. But let’s try to forget the bitter taste the vocals leave. In terms of the musical offering, we can find some positive aspects. Aussichtslos do not bore with primitive, monotonous or one-dimensional song structures. The songs can be inhaled quickly without lacking variation and this fact definitely indicates the talent of the trio. Okay, the tracks are not very catchy, but a few good sections keep sticking in my brain right from the first listening session. Especially 'Infektion' convinces in this respect. Its best part starts at 2:03 and reflects isolation and despair. 

The band presents a new drummer and this guy is also responsible for the synths. Interesting combination, but honestly speaking, the latter lives the life of an outsider here. The guitars dominate over the entire runtime of the album and this might be the explanation why it does not fascinate with a very atmospheric approach. From time to time they convey rather a rocking touch than a black metal feeling. 'Hochverrat', the closer, illustrates this most clearly. But this seems to be part of the game of Aussichtslos, because the promo speaks about “oft-hard-rocking black metal”. But it also babbles about “steely-eyed pride”, “battle-charging bombast” and “biergarten” (!), so I thought the whole information is a joke… Anyway, it also tells us that 'Hochverrat' is the best track of the band up to date. From my point of view, it is just longer than the rest, but maybe I just did not understand its outstanding excellence.

All in all, Schicksalstotschlag does not completely fall through the net. It does not lack authenticity, the compositions are solid, the production meets the international standards of 2024 and maybe it’s just my personal taste that makes it impossible for me to describe the vocals with positive attributes. Yet it is also true that the black metal scene, perhaps the most proliferating metal community, offers many extremely good albums. Compared with them, this work has to take a seat in the second or third row.

Rating: 6 out of 10