Cassette Review // Vlimmer "Bodenhex" (Blackjack Illuminist Records)

https://blackjackilluministrecords.bandcamp.com/album/bodenhex

Sometimes the measure of a musician is not whether they can create a single song or album that gets repeated plays, but rather whether they can do it more than once.  For Vlimmer, that longevity doesn't seem to be a problem as this is their fourth album and it is already filled with some new surprises while maintaining that goth-doom sound you've come to know and expect.  This starts off with big bass lines, which can lead to a hypnotic sound.  As we go into big percussion I can also hear melodies within here that remind me of The Killers.

The second song kicks in heavier and feels much more mechanical.   There is a part within the third song which makes me think of that hip hop back and forth rhythm of "black and yellow".   "Lichtbruch" has big synths and can feel sci-fi while lightsabers take us into beats on "Latenzsog".  As the final song on the first side comes to an end, it grows more intense and feels like electronic bats flying around.  

On the flip side we open with these haunted, Danny Elfman feels.  It's big and there are distorted crashes.  I don't remember Vlimmer using this much distortion in this way before now.  Screams come out, which make me feel like we're inside of a haunted house, and then steady drumming trance starts us into the next song.   A big, marching feel has that distortion crunch and then it's into a flurry of percussion.  Somehow this all comes to an end within chaos, as if an explosion went off but in a way that would make sense with the previously heard sounds.

While there is definitely a sound that can be related with how you hear Vlimmer, that sort of goth / darkwave idea, throughout this cassette the sound just seems to build upon that.  Elements of both sci-fi and horror come out to make this feel like it's more than just music because you could relate it with a film now.  Sometimes you hear a song and it's just a song- and that's okay.  But other times you hear a song from a film and it has that familiarity because it makes you think of that movie, and that's how these songs feel even though they are without an accompanying film.