The Death of Hope

Wigrid is a one-man German black metal band signed to the well-known No Colours label. Wigrid's sole proprietor is Ulfhednir, a farmer living in rural Saarbrücken. Wigrid's first official cd/lp release was titled "Hoffnungstod" (Hope's Death). Upon its release in 2002, many were quick to dismiss the band as yet another in a long line of Burzum clones. Now get ready for a heavy statement: "Hoffnungstod" is as good, maybe better, than anything ever released by Burzum. Sure it owes everything to Burzum but unlike Burzum, Wigrid doesn't rely on controversy or pad albums with pretentious attempts at ritual ambient music. Wigrid's music is, of course, black metal of the forlorn and depressive kind. Layers of buzzing guitars create as much white noise as they do melody. Ulfhednir's desperate yelps trail off behind the wash of sorrowful sound, it's actually quite serene. Three elusive demos were recorded and released in very limited numbers before "Hoffnungstod," one being a demo also titled "Hoffnungstod" and containing earlier, rawer versions of the songs that would appear on the album. The others, "Ort Der Einsamkeit" and "Die Totgeburt Jesu Christi" are extremely rare and you will never find them, but if you do let me know. Wigrid followed up the "Hoffnungstod" album with the somewhat disappointing "Die Asche Eines Lebens" (Life's Ashes), choosing to incorporate more post-rock sounds into his palette. Here I present the demo version of "Hoffnungstod." If you are familiar with the actual No Colours version it may be of interest to you to hear this more primitive version. If you are not familiar with the work of Wigrid, do yourself a favor and pick up the "Hoffnungstod" cd or lp from No Colours, and have some whisky and razor blades handy. Hope is dead.
here:

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