Deutsch duo Noekk released their debut album in 2005 but went on hiatus for ten years in 2008. Since returning, their output has remained consistent. Vergessenes is their sixth full-length recording and first since 2021’s The White Lady. Doom metal left them years ago as a foundation for their music, but you could argue that their new material is just as dark.
A keyboard symphony ushers in the choral majesty of ‘Aus alten Märchen’ as you imagine yourself among the monks of München’s famous Frauenkirche cathedral. The sudden eruption of drums and a spindly bassline at 01:10 breaks this solitude but soon becomes easy to absorb. The absence of guitar is only notable towards the end. Woodwind instruments are your friends here (though they come from keyboard presets).
Are you ready to tip-toe through the woods in ‘Durch den Wald’? The choral harmonies are more cautious here, as if guiding you through the bracken and bushes and away from the footpath. A subtle guitar overdrive finds its way into this prog landscape, yet it never dominates. This clandestine musical tone allows you to be the stalker in the trees rather than the prey underneath them. Its follow-up, ‘Sterne’, will find it easy to attract the attention of Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt with its acoustic guitar arpeggios and perspicacious vocal delivery. By contrast, ‘Es fällt ein Stern’ threatens to fall into funeral doom like Ahab gearing up for a transition to their aggressive side, yet it never arrives. There’s no reason to be disappointed. Noekk are masters of creating a pensive atmosphere without the need for electric guitars. The tags on their Bandcamp page mention Dead Can Dance, and you can see why.
For illustrative purposes, it’s tempting to think of this record as Gregorian monks fronting an acoustic Opeth album. ‘Herbstwind’ is colourful without being too flowery. The flutes are sporadic but essential to the mood of this composition. The solemn vocal harmonies of ‘Manch Bild vergessener Zeiten’ are easy to mistake for morose, yet there’s an urgency to this song. The Germans go into their doom metal catalogue for answers to questions here, though there’s no obvious structure of repetition if you’re looking for breadcrumbs to guide you away from the danger. Observe how the nimble arpeggio passages stitch everything together as the drums ponder where to place the downbeats.
Harsh death metal vocals would not be out of place on Vergessenes, and it’s to their credit that Noekk can create this possibility. Of course, there are no guttural mouth sounds here, but their acid folk leanings belong in a metal paradigm. As if to prove this, they step on the distortion for the closing effort, ‘Das alte Haus’. It ends before the three-minute mark but crams ten minutes’ worth of material into a short space of time. This is a good metaphor for the album: you never know where it’ll lead you, but you’re intrigued enough to follow the trail.
Kirk Houghton
Verdict
Release Date: 28/08/2026
Record Label: House of Inkantation
Standout tracks: Es fällt ein Stern; Manch Bild vergessener Zeiten; Das alte Haus
Suggested Further Listening: Opeth – Damnation (2003), Iterum Nata – From the Infinite Light (2024), Suldusk – Anthesis (2024)