MIDVEST are a Symphonic Black Metal band based in Cologne, Germany. Like written beforehand, all songs are in German. The quality of the production is top notch and for an independent band, this is quite a feat. I haven't heard this good of production in any album in a pretty long time. I was really impressed with the orchestral arrangements and the overall audio quality of this release. The song structures are much more defined than traditional Black Metal but they still kept the bases of Black Metal like the shrieked vocals, fast tempos and distorted guitars.

The first song off the EP is "Seelenraunen". The intro to this song reminds me a lot of Howard Shore's work with the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit franchises. It's very orchestral and quite powerful. This is pure Black Metal but with the symphonic elements throughout the song. When the singer tries to sing more clearly, he sounds a lot like Alexi Laiho from CHILDREN OF BODOM. Overall, a great opener with a killer sound.

The second song is "In Aller Ewigkeit" which means In All Eternity in English. The song begins with a long violin solo which I found really interesting. When the violin solo is finished, we almost get a Power Metal song. It's quite energetic and I thought it was refreshing to have that kind of sound in Black Metal. After that short solo, it continues as a Black Metal song but with far less orchestral arrangements than the previous song. It's a very high tempo song and my personal favorite off this EP.
The third song is "Reinkarnation". They did a video for this song which is actually pretty good, it's a simple video where you see the guys playing but it's a great introduction to the material of this new band. This might be the song that has incorporated the most classical and orchestral elements. There is a lot less clean vocals and more shrieking than the other songs off this album. They added a lot of other instruments to this song like some woodwind, percussions, keyboards and string instruments as well.

The fourth song is "Welt In Brand" which means World on Fire in English. Some of the riffs on this song remind me a lot of early PANTERA stuff and they incorporated some Groove Metal elements in this song. Other than that, it's a pretty traditional Black Metal song and by far the song that features Dominic the singer at his very best. He transitions from clean to harsh vocals and to the shrieking we all know and love with seamless effort.

The fifth song is "Sturmesnah" and it starts with the sounds of the Ocean and has a killer Chorus even though I don't understand anything they are singing about! It has a great hook and I felt like I was listening to some RAMMSTEIN but with a much more harsh voice evidently. It was groovy and really catchy and this was great change of pace from the rest of the album.

The last song off the EP is "Dunkles Erwachen" which means Dark Awakening is English. This song delivers in a big way and every member of the band shines on this one. We have a lot of guitar solos and drum solos, much more than the rest of the album. If you tune out the vocals, you almost could think you are in a Star Wars movie. It's that good, it's an awesome orchestral arrangement. The album ends on a high note and even though I am not the biggest Black Metal fan out there, I thought this was a fitting end to a pretty good album. I highly recommended it to everyone!<