DER TRAUERSCHWAN is a one man band, formed in Sweden and if I am not wrong the name is in German… The Black Swan? (Yes, it’s German and means The Grief Swan – Frank) Ok, it sounds better in German anyway. For a Doom Black Metal band I guess anything goes. Very atmospheric, very doom, very hips noticing and yet this is the kind of music that at least for me, I can appreciate in small doses and with some specific state of mind, which I frankly don’t have too much, too depressive for me. But even if the music tends to be a bit depressive, it has many interesting parts. Yes, there are many keyboards, and yes, the guitar sound is almost ethereal, but there is enough melody within all that melancholy that at the end, if you listen closely, you can imagine what the artist is trying to express. I also like the vocals, if they probably could be a bit more “expressive” to use a term, they are ok. At times the images of old KATATONIA came to my mind, and yes, the trinity of Doom / Death from the UK is also a big influence here. And as I mentioned, this is a one man band, so the drums are definitely sounding a bit plastic (drum machine I guess). The human factor when playing music can change a lot when done right and I am sure that a human drummer would improve this a lot more… or just using better software. As weird as it sounds, even for me, but I feel that there are parts where the use of keyboards would be actually helpful, and maybe add a more dramatic essence. This actually ended being more interesting than at the beginning I thought it would be. Again, the fact the songs are around the five minutes mark and not more helps. Still, if you are not a fan of the style, this will be hard to digest (especially if you look for brutality and speed) but otherwise there is quite an interesting set of things to find here. A song like ‘Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind’, if you take away the vocals and use clean ones, and if it had a better production, will not sound far away from what the Cavanagh brothers were doing in their last albums. www.facebook.com/trauerschwan, www.facebook.com/soulsellerrecords