"Darkest wishes for bloody Christmas from Germany". This is what we could definitely say for the new GRAUPEL work "Am Pranger". It was the best present to their audience for Christmas. We all loved the release date, 24/12/2010. My opinion is that this band has potential to be a great band. We should also inform for that they participated in music festivals in their country. But what we better got to say, is that they have a really good sound that sounds like other great raw black metal bands from Germany and other countries as well. We could easily say that their sound is finest quality of raw black metal and remind us bands like ENDSTILLE. Their constant hard work brought them this really good level and we are expecting more from them in the future.

Some information about them. They started with "Als der Nebel" demo in 2001. This demo was followed by their 2004 split with ENCOMIUM. At the same time also working for their first full-length album "Auf alten Wegen" released in 2005. During this time GRAUPEL started rehearsing for their following release, a split-lp with ENDSTILLE called "Lauschangriff", released in 2006. Later they started working for their second full-length album "Am Pranger" and at the end of 2010 they gave to the black metal community this magnificent work. This is definitely their best album. It's just what we call "raw black metal" an extreme sound full of anger and hate. Their lyrical themes are based most on hatred and also darkness. The lyrics are all in German language.

Their previous albums were not so different. This album came to declare finally the unity and the unique sound of "GRAUPEL". So this one definitely, comes to establish what "GRAUPEL" "real" style is. Most of their fans until this album would pick as their favorite album, maybe, their first full-length album. But now with this one, "GRAUPEL" shows to the black metal audience that they continue hard working and enforce their personal style with their second full-length. We can also notice a better sound quality. This sound finally makes "GRAUPEL" a unique band. Something that when you listen to this, you can say "this is a GRAUPEL song". This album definitely came to establish the identity of this band.

What about the sound? Well, the sound of "Am Pranger" album is a quality work and we got to say again that it is what we call "raw black metal". We can notice many speedier moments during the songs. I enjoyed the "power" of their music in this album. They made everything to sound full of hate, anger and rage; the drums especially have a great sound and the speed they need to have this result, this drummer is a German machine gun. Also the guitar's great riffs and power riffs and the bass "follows" the guitar (who leads) and all these are synchronized perfect and also play their own role too. We can also notice some small melodic parts which exist during every song; their existence is to prepare our ears for the upcoming "storm". The vocals are great; they are just what we expect to listen from a band of this type. What they have done in this album is a fantastic job to keep things interesting for the audience, and they made it.

Just listen to their music and you will agree that they are a promising band who is going to give us more and greater albums. They got to continue the hard work and we got to expect something even greater from them. It is just a matter of time.