On borrowed time from the outset of their cursed tirade up the mountainside our protagonist unknowingly attracts the Horned one’s judgement, triggering death and disaster by hubris alone before Zürich, Switzerland-based black metal duo UNGFELL sends us all to an icy, waterlogged grave. For their fourth full-length album these fellowes pivot to suit their tale taking the chance to flex their already varietal voice and reclaim some of their melodious guitar-built directive within this uncannily clever ride. The god of all goats awaits those who’d set out to conquer the wilderness on ‘De Ghörnt‘ where we find some collective revelry in deserved tragedy here, a respect for the forces of nature and a wryly set grin via these storytellers’ jib which suits the band’s sound and still building legacy well.

To know Ungfell is to know the folk, folly and fables of the mountain-gazing Schwiizerdütsch arcana through organische black metal enchantments via honcho Menetekel‘s (a ringleader for the feared H.U.C. syndicate) envisioned dioramic playwright. At it since 2014 with a swap of the drum slot circa 2017 the trajectory of their craft was initially remarkable for its harrowing folk-horrified atmosphere and impressive guitar voicing writ for two, sometimes three main guitar spots. This time around I won’t go into wild detailing of their discography as I’d been satisfied with the run-down on my review of their previous LP (‘Es grauet‘, 2021) a concept album that I’d liked enough to place at #42 on my Top 75 Albums of 2021 list praising it as a cinematically charged folktale with all manner of charming yet menacing personae captured via unstoppably fine flow from moment to moment, song to song. Much as I’d always like their work that third album solidified my interest in the vision of the folks involved.

Beyond the fall of a cursed mountain village detailed on their last opus Ungfell now siphon our collective psyche into a hunter’s point of view as he’d set out on a glacial mountaineering trek toward his inevitable doom. Hero? Anti-hero? The hunter is more of an avatar for the nature of all men and the hubris traceable through every known civilization and culture… crucial context for the sometimes boisterous, immediate tone of the album. Thanks to well secured production values and long-standing partnerships in design the stamp of the band is felt distinctly here as their focus pivots just enough in its movement to feel like a fresh tome has been cracked open with ‘De Ghörnt‘; If we could consider ‘Es grauet‘ a melancholic narrative spiraling toward a demented end then consider the shape of this album a similar downward sloping arc in terms of tone with less place-setting sound collages, skits, vignettes set between to build scenery. The directive is then more up front and tuneful, recalling some of the brighter ideas from the band’s earlier works, starting with opener “S Alpeglüeh” striding through its tremolo-picked melodic black whorls and flute-assisted chorus in reveal of the main motif of the song. Not only does it feel brilliant to be back in the clutches of their craft again this album already instantly beams with rousing energy up front, keeping their heads down and the riffs flowing for the first four songs.

A few shout-along tears and a kicking rock beat help the melodious tarantella of “De Fährmaa” hit its nigh black/folk stride as a key mid-album boon, and my favorite piece on the album overall, after the tension of “Im Ruusch” burns all the available oxygen from the room with its tirade. Much like the previous album there are trenches are there are points of surfacing which serve peaks and valleys in the action here though we’re getting the more guitar driven side of Menetekel‘s hand this time around from my point of view, specifically the circuitous way that he’ll thread dual guitar voicing for the lead effect and trail it with the key rhythm bashing behind, a feat which is at times typical in motion but uniquely built into transfixed pieces by their overall compositional scaling. Group and/or gang-shouted chorales provide the mid-song peak action while showcasing additional use of synth for effect throughout the album, though sparingly touched those additional keyed-in melodic hits (see also: ~2:18 minutes into “Rollibock (De Ghörnt vom Gletscher)”, or the choice organ on “D Pracht vom Eggishorn”) help to add intrigue to what could otherwise be considered an expected evolution of Ungfell‘s original sound per a broadened voice but same essential attack.

And then the great white beast of the glacier, the horned one, did come and despite remorse for his greed the Hunter was doomed. In this case the consequence of our protagonists actions is ultimately an unmerciful death and you can feel the intensity of ‘De Ghörnt‘ respond in kind as disaster strikes amidst the final three pieces on the album of course starting with the pivotal arrival on “Rollibock (De Ghörnt vom Gletscher)”. The song which best rivals the showmanship of the previous album here is probably the closer “De Geischt vom Märjelesee” not so much for the length of it but the steady reveal it stretches through those nine plus minutes. Though I will admit I was much more interested in the concept of ‘Es grauet‘ compared this album’s theme at face value there are far more memorably struck highs to be found on this album which just as well distinguish its narrative and find a way to crank the guitar interest back up again. This ends in a darker place overall than expected as there were some whimsical flourishes to the previous album yet here the gloom is thicker, almost ethereal in its climb up toward the end.

Here I believe Ungfell have made a serious argument for their ability to present contained stories, folk narrative prose set within conceptually built black metal album length experiences, at a consistently high level. We do not simply turn the page or strike upon “part two” but rather pick up another book entirely and our narrators adapt their idiosyncratic sound to generate fitting tonal surroundings. Rather than one-up the previous album I’d found ‘De Ghörnt‘ takes another angle entirely to ensure one could identify which album of theirs it’d come from while also representing their own signature. With this in mind of course we are still talking about obscure craft, no matter how high level their work is it still uses the fundamental expressivity of black metal to accomplish these goals, ensuring that it feels like a rare gem and not plain iteration; Graced with a woodcut style print for its cover artwork (via Svatohor / Matúš S. Ďurčík) and given great care through self-engineered and pro-rendered means this album lands as an unquestionably worthy addition to the band’s all-killer legacy thus far with a freshness that’d compelled many a return listen on my part. A high recommendation.

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