'Kriegsfall-U'

Available from Cold Spring Records, P.O. Box 40, Northampton NN6 7PT, England.

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S TAMPED with a curious blend of monarchical fidelity and the deeply esoteric, this album is dedicated to the memory of both King Charles IV (1887-1922) and Béla Hamvas (1897-1968). The former, also known as Emperor Charles I of Austria between 1916-18, was the last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Indeed, despite his committed attempts to save the Empire from disintegration, in 1919 King Charles was eventually forced to flee to Switzerland with his family and as recently as 2004 was beatified. Béla Hamvas, on the other hand, was a Hungarian writer and philosopher and perhaps best known for introducing the Traditionalist ideas of Rene Guenon into the country. His complex articles on Alchemy (‘Tabula Smaragdina’) and Hermeticism (‘Introductions’) continue to ensure that he remains one of Hungary’s leading metaphysicians.

Kriegsfall-U, incidentally, are one of Cold Spring’s newest acts and the label has really pushed the boat out as far as the design is concerned. The album’s double-sided, ten-panel insert is adorned with two defiant angels and a rather severe-looking Madonna with a sinner begging for forgiveness at her feet. The cover shows a golden bust of King Charles, whilst the CD itself has four burgundy quarters around an imposing silver cross. Track I, ‘Our Last Golden Bough Has Been Betrayed’, opens with the sound of heavy thunder and falling rain, an antithesis, perhaps, to the famous term used by Sir James Frazier to reflect the splendour of the sun in his book of the same name. Alongside the loud cheers, brutal drums and Hungarian invocations, a measured horn keeps time amid the rumbles and uncompromising background. It’s an omen of disaster, a portent of doom. All is not well in the state of the Magyars.

Presumably Track II, ‘The Great Man I – The Stance’, can provide the answer to this impending chaos. The unusual beginning is rather unnerving, with disjointed echoes of speech leading to a series of submarine beeps and then the addition of a deeper voice grafted on to a nice variation of combined drumbeats. It’s quite addictive and appealing, providing the song with a vintage quality that belies its age. In the background, meanwhile, the use of the keyboard reminds me a little of the shrill organ sound much-loved by their compatriots, Actus, although Kriegsfall-U clearly possess a unique and individual style of their own.

Track III, ‘Those Who Are Still Waiting’, begins with a decidedly martial atmosphere of distant brass bands and then moves onwards through defiant vocals, hollow choirs and littered explosions. There is a lot of diversity here, too, with the group demonstrating its ability to create a rise-and-fall effect as the song both enters and exits various phases between temporary minimalism and regenerated activity. Each gradual softening is followed by a sudden burst of action, itself followed by a macabre chanting, like skeletal ghosts of war among the ruins of a shattered land.

Track IV, ‘Porta Heroum’, is a reference to the Gate of Heroes which stands in the Hungarian university town of Szeged, once mystical home to the Árpád kings that preceded the rule of the Ottomans. The track’s distorted and disjointed beginnings are vaguely rhythmic, like the shunting of the trains which now roar through the town itself. Shouts and chants fill the background, accompanied by heavy timpani and a sustained rush of ambient noise. The echo effects are increased as two sets of vocals compete at different volume levels, before the hostile atmosphere is tempered towards the five-minute mark and soon evolves into pure ambience.

Track V, ‘The Ancient Lords’, is more upbeat. Hungarian folk music, which probably influenced the development of klezmer to some extent, is played in an erratic manner and slowed down radically so that the horns are made to sound almost comical and out of tune. This is joined by delightful snatches of a choir and crunching drumbeats that rip your ears off. The pace of the folk music increases and is then killed off just before the close.

Track VI, ‘The Great Man II – Realisation’, is the second part of the group’s tribute to two of their heroes. This one is hypnotic and encapsulating, drifting along on a tide of sound until the crashing drums are phased in once again to shake you out of your dazed slumber like the young victim of an induced cot-death. This track would sound brilliant live, of that I’m certain. High symphonic frequencies add a touch of harshness, fused with something that resembles a football mob attempting to sing the ‘Te Deum’ after ten pints of lager.

The title of Track VII, ‘Standing By The Truth’, reflects the band’s traditionalist stance. Sampled chuckles and pianistic frolicking give way to a childlike chorus and continual hum, before a brief, characteristic burst of percussion hits you between the eyes like a thunderbolt. This is quite an ordinary track compared to some of the others, and perhaps a weaker ending than I expected, but as a whole this is a great debut album from a band that shows excellent promise. No wonder, therefore, that they were chosen to perform at Cold Spring’s 15th Anniversary Party along with Von Thronstahl and H.E.R.R.. Pro Deo! Pro Rege! Pro Patria!