Wiederkehr
Der Falken Flug
Im Heimatwald
Der Schaffende
Stiller Bund
Weg ins Licht
Tochter des Waldes
Epitaph
Winter
Torn Nation
The Hidden Stone
Deutsche Sonnwend
Wittekind

The much sought after 10", Weltenwende, now re-issued in a CD digipak is finally available and to crown what already is an outstanding neofolk release is the inclusion of five bonus tracks, four of which re-recordings, three from their debut album, "In the Fields", the other from their third album, "Flammende Welt" with the spare track taken from the recent vinyl compilation, "Europa Aeterna" published also this year.

A somnolent civilisation in seeming endless throes of self-excoriation lulled by its own esurience is shaken awake by darting pipes of pan, counterpoint acoustic guitar, and the soft bristle of cymbal from deep within an arboreal bourn of eld. Their selves proclaiming the album as encompassing the ideals of the forest as sanctum in addition to being place for struggle and change, a place where the 'world-turns', Darkwood elicit pagan inspiration and embrasure into and out from an animated nature throughout Weltenwende. Weeping cello sways, aged boughs buoyant through winds of history, war and societal transformations, acoustic guitars' amplified dance saltant arpeggio and strummed chord with their electric counterparts, pipes of pan solemnly haunt like hollowed boles of some forest organ, the lambent passage of violin breaks the canopy in swooning mournful melody, ghosts of military precision regiment shadows of rhythm while ever present is Henryk Vogel's insuperable Germanic vocals, save for those few tracks in English toward the latter end of the album.

Despite the additional paeans to the original 10" the entire album has a cogent cohesiveness that belies its 'best of' panoply. Weltenwende is an excellent entry for any newcomer to Darkwood's crisp and thoughtful dark folk and a must have for any Darkwood aficionado in possession of the original 10" or without. Released in a simple full-colour digipak, featuring the stark white with bleached bronzed statues of the original Weltenwende 10" vinyl.

NYR