Year: 2021
Total Time: 36:17
Label: Drakkar Productions
“Morna / Possenspiel” is a split release, shared by two bands belonging to the family of the French record label Drakkar Productions. “Morna” is the part of the Greeks DRAMA NOIR while “Possenspiel” is the part of the Germans MORGENROTHE
DRAMA NOIR, is the intellectual child of the guitarist and their main composer Mephisto (Pavlos Papathanassiou), while on the drums we can find the busy Yngve (Nikos Samios, also in GUNGNIR and elsewhere) who has taken over the vocals as well, while on the bass we find Peisithanatos (Thanos Nanopoulos). DRAMA NOIR started their recording career in 2018 with their debut album “Princess Airam”, releasing their second work “A Necromancy Lore” in 2020, gaining flattering reviews and the attention of Drakkar. The genre they serve is that of Symphonic Black / Death Metal with a very clear Norwegian orientation and of course this is what we find in their new split album.
Three songs for each band are included in “Morna / Possenspiel”, with DRAMA NOIR opening the album with “Invaders From The North” followed by “Sacrifice Of Blood” to close their part with “Morna”.
As in their two complete albums, so here, we find three very beautifully structured songs that catch your attention. Unlike their first album but closer to the second, we see even more strongly their symphonic elements, while we observe a balance between their personal style and the influences of the band with clear references to greats of the genre, such as DIMMU BORGIR . Ingve’s vocals, we would say, refer to the artist to whom he owes his nickname, Dead of MAYHEM. All three songs are of the same level, but the eponymous to the album “Morna” with its oriental touches, attracts a little more attention. It is worth noting that the production on behalf of DRAMA NOIR has been undertaken by Savvas Betinis of ACID DEATH.
The Germans MORGENROTHE for their part, are here in their second attempt, having in their list only one EP of 2020, the self-titled “Morgenrothe”. On the guitars we find both the two main members of the band, Michael Schneider and Nicolas Frank, while on drums Josci Gerber as guest musician, on vocals Jonas Muller and on bass Max Macharowsky.
In contrary to the more intense and symphonic style of DRAMA NOIR, MORGENROTHE belong to the Post Black Metal genre with their songs being more atmospheric, less fast but with some interesting outbursts here and there and keys to make their appearance in the third and their longest song which closes this split album, the 10 minute “La Reine Du Soleil Moribond” which is also the most interesting song of the Germans. This of course does not make indifferent the two previous “Possenspiel” and “Der Revenant” which, however, do not deviate much from the general style of the genre they represent.
Overall, we have a beautiful split album, which from the point of view of the already active in discography DRAMA NOIR shows the prospects and the very good situation in which the band is, creating greater expectations for their future, while for the Germans, a complete work maybe will show more about the band’s synthetic ability, but also about what they really want to show us with their music.
Rating DRAMA NOIR: 8/10, MORGENROTHE: 6,5/10
Editor: Fanouris Exintavelonis
Related Link: DRAMA NOIR – Official Page
MORGENROTHE – Bandcamp Page
