I come from the dark German forest. Quickly calling the charming Gothic metal itself horror metal. Although the name means something like "gloomy prospects", the quality is not. Even if the sound seems a bit overloaded to me and the print on the cover and the booklet could be better. Actually, that already belongs in the conclusion, so let's talk about the two musicians and the music.

In the year 2000, the musicians Ulf Theodor Schwadorf (Markus Stock) and Allen B. Konstanz (Tobias Schönemann) founded The Vision-Bleak. They describe their music as horror metal, and their albums are stylistically based on horror films and literature. The Unknown was released in 2016 and is the first work by the band that I have heard. Powerful. Good vocals. Good melody and rhythm. Drama and theatricality are convincing. Smoother than the earlier albums, but still edgy enough. As a prog head, I liked the many prog elements right away, such as the lack of verse-chorus structure. For me, The Unknown is more than gothic metal.

It starts off quietly with the short opener “Spirits of the Dead”, which is devoured by the wolf in the 07:08 long “From Wolf to Peacock”. Fat riffs, strong drums, beautifully flowing lyrics, symphonic black metal. The following “The Kindred of the Sunset” has a nice speed, good short growls in the second voice and thus a dense atmosphere. Quiet break in the middle and then give it a go! The title song comes with 06:35. “Into the Unknown” takes us into the unknown, not musically of course. Beautiful sound, like a rock legend. Theatrical and wide. Together with “Kindred of the Sunset” my first two highlights.
“Ancient Heart” and “The whine of the Cementory Hound” are doom and progressive. Definitely another highlight for me. Since the whole album is a highlight, I'll spare you that. “How Deep lies Tartaros” and “Who may oppose me” are in no way inferior, although the latter gives us time to breathe purely instrumentally. Before we get to the closer “The Fragrancy of Soil Unearthed”. What can I say? Another highlight, “here I am King”, and quite rightly so.

Conclusion? For prog-heads: buy it. And for gothic and metal fans, even more so.

The photos are all from my CD. The rights to all motifs, logos, texts and fonts that can be seen in the photos are of course owned by the copyright holder.