The incubation period of Germ has been one of many, many years. First conceived by sole member Tim Yatras way back in 2003, time and space and a number of incredibly important bands (Austere, Woods of Desolation and Grey Waters amongst the acts Tim has been a part of) construed to leave Germ as naught but a dream – a wish, as it were. Music attributed to Germ appeared in the long years between the inception of the project and the fully realised debut album we hear today, Wish and it’s perfectly acceptable to say that this maddening wait was completely worth it
Wish is a terrifically intriguing record, blending genres and breaking rules with hardly a glance back at the devastation left in it’s wake. The core of the record is black metal and any follower of the career of Tim Yatras will immediately pick up on the distinct sounds and nuances found within this album. Yet Wish is so much more than that; it’s a rock album, a dance record, a sorrow tinged masterpiece – and when those electronic beats kick there’s a huge sense of wonder and marvel. Germ is bringing black metal into a whole new realm, yet Yatras is somehow still keeping to the ideas and aesthetics that audiences can grasp hold of and relate to. Those blinding blasts on the drum kit and the quite fantastical nature of the shrieking vocal used is enough to ground Wish in the genre of harshness and despair. But…there’s those electro-beats…..
Building atmosphere via processed pulses of sound and underpinning the work with a gentle layer of sadness, Yatras has created an album of bizarre cohesion. The extreme touches seem entirely at one with the more pop-tinged passages; absolute inhuman cries issued forth halfway through opening track “An Overdose On Cosmic Galaxy” are a world away from the electronic lines spilling over the deep rumbling drumbeat and the soaring choral backing that slides in behind Tim’s lesser used but surprisingly sweet clean vocal. It shouldn’t work, but it’s so magnificently unusual that you are swept away by the unorthodox nature of it all.
Themes of nature and sorrow, the cosmos and the vastness of the universe permeate Wish – huge ideas in the wasteland of life and it’s via the wildly different styles that these emotions are wrought. The sense of deep and profound searching is found on shorter interlude type tracks “Oxygen” and album closer “Wish.” Yet this record is not completely devoid of hope; there’s a curious impression of elation hidden in the uptempo rhythms and plucked synthy strings of “Breathe In The Sulphur/A Light Meteor Shower,” an album highlight if ever there was one.
“Flowers Bloom and Flowers Fall, But I’m Still Waiting For The Spring” ushers in a mightily sweeping guitar solo to sit alongside those synthesised string sections and vocals dredged from a hell we can never know. Yatras has such a distinctive vocal style, and his usual screams and howls are wonderfully offset by the occasional burst of true singing and trance-filled flows. Playing out via “Wish,” the album closes on a sublimely morose piano led piece. Footsteps echo as they leave the instrument, walking away into the world and disappearing into the surroundings. Captivating.
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