Review: Finistère – Am Grauen Meer
N.O. has a big appetite for German post-ish BM and Finistère is here with a new album to quell his hunger.
Band: Finistère
Album: Am grauen Meer
Genre: Post Black Metal
Country: Germany
Label: Ministry of Truth
Released: September 2025
Introduction
For their latest full length, Germany’s Finistère take to the seas to showcase their punchy unrelenting brand of black metal.
Am grauen Meer
Tracklist:
- Niemandsland
- Treibgut
- Zerstörer
- Nebel
- Arngast
- Grimme Herne
- Hartwarden
- Langwarden
Rumination
Another week, another German black metal band to write about (honestly between Der Weg, Great Sea, Grab and these guys, Germany has been absolutely killing it the past 12 months).
Finistère is a easy W for someone like myself. The riffs are great, the productions spot on, it’s not remotely tropey. I honestly can’t find anything to fault with this release. If you’re a fan of the aforementioned Der Weg Einer Freiheit (who I have to assume are an influence here) then you’ll very likely enjoy this.
As an aside this band does something I personally find pretty interesting wherein it technically sits in the realm of post black metal presentation wise/somewhat soundwise. But its so openly committed to traditional black metal (in particular I hear a fair bit of finnish) that it almost could fall into the territory of being straight up black metal. The only other band I know who does something similar to this is Void Omnia (who I big time fuck with).
The results are that all the songs are still pretty damn catchy.
Also on that note I have to give credit to Finistère for keeping this album concise. At 33 minutes this album is lean but its deeply effective. From my perspective It’s super easy for post black metal bands to throw in a bunch of bloat to the amusement of noone (Olhava being the only exception to this for me) whereas Finistère never take their brand of post black metal into self indulgent territory. It’s just focused on solid songwriting from start to finish.
Conclusion
Honestly I figured when I first saw the artwork I pretty much knew I was going to enjoy this album and was correct. This is a solid effort from this newer German band and I’m really keen to see where they take it from here.
BMZ Rating: 8 out of 10
Support Finistère here: https://fnstr.bandcamp.com/album/am-grauen-meer
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