Bergfried - Romantik III LP

Follwing »Romantik I« (2022) and »Romantik II« (2023), Austrian-Hungarian duo Bergfried present their new album »Romantik III«, the first for High Roller Records. The group consists of Erech von Lothringen, who is handling all the instruments, and vocalist Anna de Savoy.
The name of Erech von Lothringen is quite well-known in underground circles. Over the last years, he has created a lot of different projects, mostly being associated with black metal. “That’s true,” says the multi-instrumentalist. “Although I’d like to stress that only two EPs of the lot were strictly black metal. Golden Blood, for example, leaned more towards thrash metal, heavy metal and even power metal. I am listening to lot of different metal styles, and black metal is only a very small part of that.”
“I only had the name of the band, and the title of the first EP, »Romantik I«,” Erech von Lothringen explains how Bergrfried came about in the first place. “Musically I wanted to take the project in the direction of Grime Stone Records. However, that didn’t work out too well as everything turned out more rocky than I had expected. No wonder though, as at the time I was only listening to 70s/80s hard rock and AOR.“
In principle, Bergrfried are a duo. However, this time around Erech von Lothringen got a lot of help: “I only had to play rhythm and lead guitars on the album. There are real drums on »Romantik III«, handled by Fabio Alessandrini, who was also playing on »Serpent Chariot«, the debut album by Golden Blood. He is usually active for Annihilator, Bonfire and Enforcer.“
“»Romantik III« is the last part of this trilogy,” continues Erech von Lothringen. “But I will surely continue with Bergfried. Although I don’t really know where I will end up with this project musically a few years in the future. I am really satisfied with the current sound though, as it covers a broad spectrum and leaves enough room for experiments. Conceptually, “»Romantik III« is the continuation of “»Romantik II«, the whole thing has become a bit more compact musically, and also clearer. There are classic heavy metal songs on the album, but, as on »Romantik II«, there are also a few musical-like passages inbetween. »Romantik III« is a concept album: Anna is wandering through hell looking for her lover, fighting with God (Maria Nesh of Red Eye Temple) and the devil (Sarah Kitteringham of Smoulder). She gets help from the heavenly messenger (Damna of Elvenking). It may sound like the typical fight of good against evil, but everything is not as clear as it seems …”
»Romantik III« is a very catchy, accessible album and does not sound as dark as some of the song titles seem to imply. It’s melancholic through and through, for sure, but a song like “Fallen From Grace” has strong pop sensibilities. “This is probably down to my love of Meat Loaf,” says Erech von Lothringen. “When as a child I was holding »Bat Out Of Hell« in my hands, I was suspecting the heaviest album of all time. Of course, the record is nothing like that. The song titles and the artwork of »Romantik III« are definitely dark and I can understand that expectations lean in that direction. But in the end it’s quite different but nevertheless fits together very well.”
”Queen Of The Dead“ and “Gates Of Fate“, on the other hand, are almost pure classic heavy metal. “Except for the showdown between Anna and God in ‘Queen Of The Dead’, I would say yes! ‘Gates Of Fate’ has some power metal influences as well. ‘Queen Of The Dead’ feels quite heavy because of Maria’s (God’s) raw voice.”
At first glance, it would be easy to think that »Romantik III« shares some of the aesthetics of occult rock. But this seems not be the case. “I like The Devil’s Blood and Dark Meditation,” states Erech von Lothringen. “But occult rock has this special kind of atmosphere, and I think Bergfried is going into a slightly different direction. These influences are to be found of »Romantik I« and »Romantik II«, rather than on the new album.”