Year: 2025
Label: Far From… Records

Oh, great! Another one of those albums. Those albums, which are such a potpourri of styles and genres, that trying to describe it is an exercise in futility. In other words, a reviewer’s dream.

I jest, of course. Whilst it’s true that albums such as this pose their own kind of challenge, it’s one that is usually interesting to tackle. It tests both the reviewer’s knowledge and his skill with words.

So let’s dive into the album and see what yours truly can wring out of it…

The label itself describes Without Idols, Hungarian Napsorvadás’ debut album with terms such as experimental, industrial, neofolk and ambient. All in themselves quite accurate, but taking the album as a whole, none of these descriptors do it justice.

I read somewhere that Napsorvadás’ aim with the album is to echo or recreate the spirit of the old experimental/industrial/neofolk scene, from the heyday of World Serpent et al. This is in fact a very fruitful way to approach Without Idols. Far better than trying to figure what (sub)genre it best fits into.

I mean, looking back now, it may seem like the late 80’s and 90’s “apocalyptic folk” scene was a musically uniform thing. At any rate it seems to me like that’s the colour many people paint it with. But when you actually dig into the music, you start noticing how all over the place it was. Acoustic neofolk mingles with electronic beats, harsh industrial with weirded out rock songs, dark ambience with even poppy sensibilities. It was a bold and unprejudiced mixture of different approaches and sounds.

And so, finally (I hear the reader groan), we arrive at Without Idols. In very much the same way as that classic old apocalyptic folk stuff, the album refuses to be pigeonholed more specifically than under some very vague post-industrial label.

The album kicks off with a very atmospheric industrial dark ambient track, It Smoulders Inside Me. Lower frequency looping drones emerge from the distance, growing louder. Upon it is layered a slow, haunting, droning melody. The whole track expertly builds tension, sort of setting up the stage for the rest of the album without coming across as “just” an intro.

Second track Awakening Snowdrop cleverly starts out sounding very similar: dark ambience with a slightly brighter timbre. The listener is tricked into thinking he’s got Without Idols squared. However, one third through the track, it gradually transform itself into something entirely different, with beautiful piano and subtle acoustic guitar replacing the industrial ambience. Napsorvadás throw the listener off for the first, but not the last time on the album. Without Idols is an album that is not afraid of shifting gears surprisingly.

Fourth track Birds, Trees And Rivers leans fully into a classic neofolk sound with melancholy acoustic guitars, sorrowful pianos and haunting violins layered over electric bass and drums. The vocals are an understated, laconic baritone which echo both sorrow and majesty. Not only is this an exceptionally beautiful track, as the most melodically pronounced and song on the album, it very quickly rises to become an absolute centrepiece. Obviously intentionally so, sitting in the middle of the track list.

Birds, Trees And Rivers manages to define how one perceives the album to a surprisingly large extent. Which is unequivocal praise for the track.

Somewhat surprisingly, the track Medizin Nach Mitternacht is the other centrepiece on the album. Defined by haunting piano and a subdued, electronic downtempo beat, this is another shift in gear for Without Idols. It is the spoken word vocals of Gerhard Hallstatt (Allerseelen) which, despite possible language barriers, make this track stand out strongly. Being the only lyrics printed on the actual physical package, it seems like an intentional second pillar.

And this is not all Napsorvadás extend their sound to. For example, A Balance Of The Coil (A Walk Through The Streets Of Twin Peaks) adds a touch of jazz noir into the sound. It doesn’t go quite full on Angelo Badalamenti on the listener, but yes indeed: there’s a whiff of Douglas fir in here.

And so on. It’s not quite seven tracks, seven different styles, but it’s not far from that, either.

Ultimately, circling back to the beginning, genre pigeonholing is indeed quite futile. Without Idols is an album that reaches far and wide, and still manages to sound coherent. Whether it is through tragic neofolk or mysterious industrial ambience, or something entirely else, Napsorvadás manage to imbue their music with mystery, darkness and melancholy – but also with a flickering hope, a distant ray of light and a beauty that cannot quite be described. Damned be the genre, this is beautiful music.

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