From Bandcamp, “With PERCHTA's sophomore full-length titled "D'Muata," which translates from her Alpine Austrian dialect to English as "The Mother," mastermind and vocalist Frau Percht and her band have created a feminist manifesto within a folklore influenced black metal context. Femininity in all its facets is a rather niche topic in this genre although it is an inseparable part of everything human and the natural world around us. Taking their name from an alleged pagan goddess, PERCHTA were conceived in Tyrol, Austria in 2017 with an aim to preserve and rejuvenate regional traditions.”

“Vom Verlånga” is the first cut. The opening tones are clean, and the tension is thick. The heavy riff that follows is augmented with meaty bass notes and vocal screams, but the clean vocals in the chorus are a nice surprise. “Ois wås man san” is another carefully crafted song, and it’s clear through two tracks that this isn’t just another Black Metal band. They work in melody, vocal harmonies, and varying emotions into the music quite well. “Heiliges Blaut” is a shorter song, featuring clean vocals in the band’s native language. They rise, swell, and contract again several times, and the feeling you are left with is straight tension.

“Hebamm” is an eight-minute beast, slowly opening like fog lifting on the battlefield in the morning. The nuances are subtle, and I am left with a melancholy feeling. The more weighted passages, however, bring up feelings of rage and anger. The title track is more compacted, and perhaps hastier as well. The stark dichotomy between the harsh passages and clean ones might be presented best in this song, and the guitar leads are fantastic as well. “Wehenkanon” has some intriguing sounds that are hard to pinpoint. Some of the vocals are harsh, but most are clean, and the song presents a smooth sound that you can hop on and ride out. “Ansbruch” is just over a minute in length and sets up the remaining two tracks with sounds of terror and torture.

“Långtuttin & Stampa” has a deeper and wider sound that is both more aggressive and more harrowing. The scratchy vocals sound like they come from a witch at times…one hidden deep in the mountains. “Mei Dianä Mei Bua” closes the album, and it has some swinging Folk elements to go along with the tempered aggression. Overall, what impressed me most about the band and the album was how vast and wide their songwriting skills were. At times, it was fairly straightforward rage and anger, like you might expect from Black Metal. But they inject a lot more into the music, including tones of melancholy, and even tones of beguilement. If you take the plunge and become immersed in the album, you will exit the experience a different person.