VALBORG Just Released & Streamed Their Latest Album “Der Alte” ‣ CVLTARTES

VALBORG‘s massive new full-length “Der Alte” is crushing stores on brutal impact today, Friday, September 9. The German sludge monsters will be able to support their fresh album on tour with MANTAR, which kicks off tomorrow at the Hellseatic in the duo’s original hometown of Bremen in the North of Germany.

VALBORG comment: “Today, ‘Der Alte’ is seeing the light of day, and considering that we had started working on the first ideas for new songs in early 2019, it should be pretty obvious that we are beyond happy about the release finally happening”, guitarist and singer Christian Kolf declares.

“We are particularly proud of this album and stoked about all the great feedback that we got so far. We could hardly wait to perform some of these new tracks live on stage and luckily this starts tomorrow when we hit the road with our brothers MANTAR in Bremen. See you on tour!”

Some bands prosper largely in a space that is mostly visited by connoisseurs and insiders for a large part of their careers. Critically acclaimed German outfit VALBORG can clearly lay claim to such a fate until now.

Beloved by many of their peers, knowing journalists, and a die-hard fanbase, the trio from the City of Bonn is long overdue for the “big breakthrough” despite a discography of outstanding quality that already includes eight albums.

Looking for reasons, it is easy to point out the willingness of VALBORG to experiment, shifting boundaries, and while always remaining true to their harsh and sinister musical core, the Germans have never stuck to one particular musical box while consciously avoiding becoming trapped in a stylistic pigeon hole. As a result, many stickers have been applied to their sound: doom, blackened death metal, and industrial among others.

In their latest incarnation entitled “Der Alte” (“The Old One”), VALBORG takes a rather reductionist approach. Their new tracks are deliberately kept short, making use of simple structures, brutal, while making use of extreme vocals and their trademark lambasting and relentless drum beat.

Aided by LANTLOS-mastermind Markus Siegenhort, who took on all production roles, VALBORG has opted for a raw and unpolished sound that relies heavily on the guitars as all keyboards have been ditched on this album. Audible influences include all of the band’s metal aspects but also add elements derived from punk and wave for example.

The result of this simplification process is hard-hitting tracks that still maintain a dark cinematic quality and construct threatening nightmare scenarios within cosmic dimensions, which fits the Germans’ lyrical themes that explore the maddening horrors awaiting in the abyss of outer space, xenomorphic manipulation, and apocalyptic visions that are often referring to and sometimes taken from the canon of modern science fiction literature.

VALBORG were conceived in the City of Bonn, the former capital of West Germany in the country’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, in the year 2002.

The trio’s self-released debut album “Songs for a Year” was released in 2005 but despite generating an underground buzz and being offered a record deal, the Germans’ busy work schedule meant that their sophomore full-length “Glorification of Pain” only came out nearly 4 years later in 2009.

The band firmly established themselves as a highly individual metal act with the next three albums that appeared in rapid succession: “Crown of Sorrow” (2010), “Barbarian” (2011), and “Nekrodepression” (2012).

Critics have compared VALBORG with such artists as GODFLESH, CELTIC FROST, and TRIPTYKON as well as TYPE O NEGATIVE among others, but the trio clearly went their own way and continued to defy easy categorizations as the following three full-length releases easily proved that came out in more usual intervals, namely “Romantik” (2015), “Endstrand” (2017), and “Zentrum” (2019).

On the live-front, the Germans have twice been invited and performed at the taste-making Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands as well as other prestigious festivals. They have also crisscrossed Europe several times by now and the latest tour included support for MANTAR and HEMELBESTORMER.

Another remarkable trademark element of VALBORG are their captivating and stylish album artworks that achieve a strong sense of continuity as they are all created by vocalist and bass player Jan Buckard.

With “Der Alte”, VALBORG deliver more than tasty bittersweet ear candy for their loyal fanbase as their harsh but simplified new tracks will easily appeal to a much broader audience that craves brutal, dark, and highly intelligent music!

You can order “Der Alte”, here.