WIR ESSEN SEELEN IN DER NACHT

"Wir essen Seelen in der Nacht" ("We eat souls in the night") is an EP release by Dutch noise/drone/industrial/black metal act Gnaw Their Tongues. The EP was independently released in November 2014 and offered as a "name your price" option on Gnaw Their Tongues Bandcamp profile. As on nearly all other releases by Gnaw Their Tongues, Mories is responsible for all instruments, vocals, artwork, and production. A true one-man army.

Stylistically "Wir essen Seelen in der Nacht" belongs in the more noise/drone oriented part of the project's output, and the 4 tracks on the 18:41 minutes long EP don't feature many metal elements. The eerie haunting atmospheres and the samples of classical instruments are central elements in the sound along with the usual unpleasant noise effects. Some sections of the tracks feature tortured screaming by Mories, but this is mostly an instrumental and overall rather disturbing listen. Mories is incredibly skilled at building terrifying atmospheres designed to send chills down your spine. And he succeeds in doing that on this EP too, but overall the music lacks memorability and climaxes to hold on to, and to my ears Mories has taken the noise/drone aspect of his sound a bit too far on "Wir essen Seelen in der Nacht". It's of course an aquired taste, but personally I prefer the Gnaw Their Tongues releases which feature more metal elements. This simply has a tendency to become a bit tedious.

"Wir essen Seelen in der Nacht" is packed in a professional, detailed, and relatively raw sound production, which suits the music well. Compared to the sound productions on some of the previous releases by the project, the production here isn't nearly as raw sounding. Overall it's another intriguing release by Gnaw Their Tongues although Mories haven't chosen his best material to appear here, but a 3 star (60%) rating is still warranted.