A new video from Coltaine isn’t such a shock. The post-genre German dark heavy progressives released their new album, Brandung (review here), on Sept. 5 through Lay Bare Recordings, and especially in light of the tour they have coming up in Jan./Feb. with Faetooth, a new clip to keep momentum going makes sense. But Coltaine do things their own way, exclusively. So how surprised should one be to learn that “Mogila,” which raises a sludgy chug from out of a subtly constructed ambient backdrop, vocalist Julia Frasch using a rasping shout that eventually recedes to let the meditative lead guitar hold sway en route to later layered crooning, isn’t from Brandung at all?

Mildly? A lil bit? Egy kicsi kicsit?

Well, less if you’ve dug into Brandung and you recognize “Mogila” isn’t there. The song is recognizable as the hypnotic opener of 2024’s Forgotten Ways (review here), and the ceremonial feel that emerges from it ties into that record’s ritualistic cast. Once that chug gets going, solidified in its march, the song has its pattern to follow, but the prior swirl is more than scene-setting as well, the two sides coming together to create a sound that is atmospheric and primal alike, something which Coltaine have built upon with Brandung.

In addition to the dates below, Coltaine have been confirmed for Freak Valley Festival in June, where I very much hope to be in no small part to see them for the first time (also doom yoga), but if you’re in position to see Coltaine with Faetooth in the next month or two, that’s probably a thing you want to do. The shows are in the UK, Ireland and major Euro markets. I wouldn’t be surprised if they followed with an Eastern Euro run later in ’26 — maybe that’ll be their summer plans and they’ll start off at FVF for all I know — but there’s plenty of time for such things. The upcoming dates are below, should you want to mark the calendar.

I’ve also got the stream of Brandung down there, even though “Mogila” isn’t on it. Year-end list time is upon us, and I know Brandung is on mine. I thought maybe I’d give you another shot at it too. Might make your day if it hasn’t yet.

But first, the video:

Coltaine, “Mogila” official video

Coltaine on “Mogila”:

‘Mogila’ has been with us since the beginning, and now feels like the right moment to give it its own space. It captures the essence of our first album, and we wanted to revisit it visually.

To us, our music is timeless, and we naturally return to certain songs during periods when our connection to them feels stronger. Mogila is a very dark piece that embodies the mood and atmosphere of this darker time of year in which we currently find ourselves.

Coltaine – Mogila
Idea & editing: Natascha Stogu
Mix and master: Jan Oberg

Special thanks to:
Paul Koranyi
Maksim Khmelevsky
Tim Plaster
Mikalai Kapachou
Film Archive Austria

Mogila’ (могила) translates to ‘grave’. ‘Mogila’ can be found on the Forgotten Ways album, which was released on Lay Bare Recordings in September 2024.

COLTAINE – EU/UK Tour with Faetooth

Tickets: https://www.bandsintown.com/a/15513861-coltaine

22/01 – 🇩🇪 Berlin, Lido
23/01 – 🇩🇪 Hamburg, Hafenklang
24/01 – 🇩🇪 Bochum, Die Trompete
25/01 – 🇩🇪 Mainz, Schon-Schoen
27/01 – 🇳🇱 Utrecht, De Helling
28/01 – 🇧🇪 Brussels, AB Club
30/01 – 🇮🇪 Dublin, Workman’s Club
31/01 – 🇮🇪 Galway, Roisin Dubh
01/02 – 🇮🇪 Cork, The Pav
03/02 – 🇬🇧 Birkenhead, Future Yard
04/02 – 🇬🇧 Shipley, Kirkgate Community Centre
05/02 – 🇬🇧 Newcastle, Anarchy Brewery
06/02 – 🇬🇧 Glasgow, Classic Grand
07/02 – 🇬🇧 Manchester, Rebellion
08/02 – 🇬🇧 Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
10/02 – 🇬🇧 Bristol, The Fleece
11/02 – 🇬🇧 Wolverhampton, KK’s Steel Mill
12/02 – 🇬🇧 Southampton, Papillon
13/02 – 🇬🇧 Swansea, Sin City
14/02 – 🇬🇧 London, The Garage
15/02 – 🇬🇧 Brighton, Patterns
16/02 – 🇫🇷 Lille, Bulle Cafe
17/02 – 🇫🇷 Paris, L’Empreinte Savigny Le Temple
18/02 – 🇫🇷 Lyon, Rock N Eat
20/02 – 🇮🇹 Milan, Slaughter Club
21/02 – 🇮🇹 Bologna, Freakout Club
22/02 – 🇨🇭 Lucerne, Sedel
23/02 – 🇨🇭 Düdingen, Bad Bonn
24/02 – 🇩🇪 Munich, Feierwerk
25/02 – 🇩🇪 Leipzig, UT Connewitz
27/02 – 🇵🇱 Warsaw, Hydrozagadka
28/02 – 🇵🇱 Wroclaw, Lacznik

Coltaine, Brandung (2025)

Coltaine links

Coltaine on Bandcamp

Coltaine on Songkick

Coltaine on Instagram

Coltaine on Facebook

Lay Bare Recordings website

Lay Bare Recordings on Bandcamp

Lay Bare Recordings on Instagram

Lay Bare Recordings on Facebook

If you haven’t heard it yet, I encourage you to listen to Coltaine‘s 2025 album, Brandung (review here), at the bottom of this post. I want to say up front that I’m not trying to slight Faetooth here; their own 2025 LP, Labyrinthine (review here) was a banger as well, they just have more hype generally than Coltaine, so in my mind you’re more likely to have heard them before. Does that make sense? I don’t know, but you spend your still-stoned Sunday morning how you want and I’ll do the same, thanks.

And how I prefer to spend mine is with another revisit to the world the Karlsruhe outfit create across the album, intangibly atmospheric and willing to break the rules of genre to its will. The folk of another universe. It is my hope to see Coltaine later in 2026, and it’s among my most-looked-forward-to sets going into the New Year. If you’re gonna be where they are, in Germany, UK, France, Switzerland, Poland, Italy, you might consider showing up. This is a band pushing ideas of ‘heavy’ in a direction of their own, and they’re doing that crucial work right now. Listen to the album if you don’t believe me.

From social media:

COLTAINE – EU/UK Tour with Faetooth

Tickets: https://www.bandsintown.com/a/15513861-coltaine

22/01 – 🇩🇪 Berlin, Lido
23/01 – 🇩🇪 Hamburg, Hafenklang
24/01 – 🇩🇪 Bochum, Die Trompete
25/01 – 🇩🇪 Mainz, Schon-Schoen
27/01 – 🇳🇱 Utrecht, De Helling
28/01 – 🇧🇪 Brussels, AB Club
30/01 – 🇮🇪 Dublin, Workman’s Club
31/01 – 🇮🇪 Galway, Roisin Dubh
01/02 – 🇮🇪 Cork, The Pav
03/02 – 🇬🇧 Birkenhead, Future Yard
04/02 – 🇬🇧 Shipley, Kirkgate Community Centre
05/02 – 🇬🇧 Newcastle, Anarchy Brewery
06/02 – 🇬🇧 Glasgow, Classic Grand
07/02 – 🇬🇧 Manchester, Rebellion
08/02 – 🇬🇧 Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
10/02 – 🇬🇧 Bristol, The Fleece
11/02 – 🇬🇧 Wolverhampton, KK’s Steel Mill
12/02 – 🇬🇧 Southampton, Papillon
13/02 – 🇬🇧 Swansea, Sin City
14/02 – 🇬🇧 London, The Garage
15/02 – 🇬🇧 Brighton, Patterns
16/02 – 🇫🇷 Lille, Bulle Cafe
17/02 – 🇫🇷 Paris, L’Empreinte Savigny Le Temple
18/02 – 🇫🇷 Lyon, Rock N Eat
20/02 – 🇮🇹 Milan, Slaughter Club
21/02 – 🇮🇹 Bologna, Freakout Club
22/02 – 🇨🇭 Lucerne, Sedel
23/02 – 🇨🇭 Düdingen, Bad Bonn
24/02 – 🇩🇪 Munich, Feierwerk
25/02 – 🇩🇪 Leipzig, UT Connewitz
27/02 – 🇵🇱 Warsaw, Hydrozagadka
28/02 – 🇵🇱 Wroclaw, Lacznik

https://coltaine-band.com/
https://linktr.ee/coltaine
https://coltaine.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/coltaine/
https://www.facebook.com/coltaineband

https://laybarerecordings.com/
https://laybarerecordings.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/laybarerecordings/
https://www.facebook.com/laybarerecordings/

Coltaine, “Brandung” live in Oslo, Norway, Sept. 5 2025

Coltaine, Brandung (2025)

Born in Karlsruhe, Germany, Coltaine arrive at the realizations of mood in Brandung following their 2024 album, Forgotten Ways (review here). That album was kind of a debut that wasn’t, which is to say, there was an aspect of the band having ‘figured it out’ in a new way, and maybe committed themselves to the development of a particular aesthetic in a deeper way more than they had with the prior EP, Gorit (discussed here), in 2023.

And while there’s no question their work over the last two years (so far) represents a distinct turn in their discography, the history of the band is inevitably more complex, with guitarist Moritz Berg and bassist Benedikt Berg (also cello, percussion) having founded the group under the name Witchfucker with more of a black metal bent. The name changed, changed again, as will happen. Two full-lengths were released in the 2010s, 2016’s Mutter Morgana and 2018’s Atomhure, before 2020’s Afterhour in Walhalla (discussed here) brought together the dark atmospherics with residual aural char to create a sound that lived up to its fire-against-a-darkening-sky cover art.

I note these releases and this more complex history to emphasize the point that what Coltaine achieve over the nine songs and 36 minutes of Brandung isn’t out of the blue, it’s the result of more than a decade of sonic progression and refinement of craft, the considered execution of an aesthetic, and a thoughtful production and arrangement of the songs. Brandung was co-engineered by drummer Amin Bouzeghaia (also guitar on several tracks) and Gregor Rieth, and it is organically textured in its layering and balance of elements (Jan Oberg of Grin, etc., mixed and mastered), with vocalist Julia Frasch providing key presence and human melodic contemplation throughout, beginning with the humming-along intro “Tiefe Wasser” (‘deep water’) leading into “Memories of Ice,” which establishes early that black metal is still a part of what Coltaine do, thereby setting up a threat of extremity that hovers over the remainder of the record while the band deftly take their sound elsewhere.

This is one of the subtle ways in which Brandung puts the listener where it wants them to be, affecting mood with material that, even when it’s not outwardly heavy in the loud, tonally brash sense — the melancholic post-heavy sprawlscaper “Above the Burning Sand,” for example — the fact that at any moment Coltaine might break into squibblies, blastbeats and throatrippers is never quite gone from the proceedings. It becomes a central facet and strength of the album, and is purely the result of intention on the band’s part in both songwriting and sequencing. It is also far from the last triumph Brandung heralds.

Most of them, as it should be, are in the songs themselves, and I note the winding path Coltaine have taken to get here not to contradict ‘second-album’ narratives around Brandung, but to appreciate the actual work, real-life effort put into their progression of sound. As dug-in as Brandung is, and as refreshingly individual as it sounds, it’s almost too easy to pretend it and they came out of nowhere, emerging from a crack in the ground with a fully-realized stylistic take. That can be a good but if fun if you’re a fan, but it ultimately devalues the artistry on display by removing the context of how they got there.

The brooding goth rock of “Keep Me Down in the Deep” with Frasch‘s drawling voice overtop, pulling together calm and restlessness. The chasmic affect of “Abyssal Sands” in following “Above the Burning Sand” as side B unfurls from the intro it’s given through the guitar build and ebb of “Wirbelwind” and the point of arrival that the title-track “Brandung” represents, its two-stage movement through shuffling, echoing doom rock into minimalist ambient reaches, prefacing the almost-YOBbian plucked notes of the epilogue “Solar Veil.” Coltaine are able to make it harsh, engrossing, gorgeous or deathly, and in the spirit of ungenred outfits like Crippled Black Phoenix, what their creativity seems most to be chasing is its own ends.

It would not be a surprise if the next Coltaine leaned more into black metal, but that it doesn’t feels honest in terms of the songs and the cogency of mood throughout. In the intros, interludes, short-instrumentals, whatever you want to call them — “Tiefe Wasser,” “Black Coral,” “Wirbelwind,” “Abyssal Sands,” “Solar Veil” — the four-piece do more than simply complement the more fleshed-out ‘songs.’ It’s not a case of this-was-half-a-part-and-we-made-it-a-thing, and the purpose these shorter pieces serve is beyond the decorative.

The transitions between are mostly defined — that is, the near-wash at the culmination of “Keep Me Down in the Deep” fades out completely before the standalone guitar of “Black Coral” begins to provide pastoralist sanctuary — but the fluidity of one track still informs the next, whether that’s the acoustic-integrated strum of “Memories of Ice” leading to the defined riff starting “Keep Me Down in the Deep” — a crucial moment of initial listener immersion — or the ritual-psych heavyfolk of “Wirbelwind” completing its in-the-woods-at-night ceremony before the low rumble sets the stage for the guitar floating at the outset of “Above the Burning Sand.” Brandung is rife with these details, within, between and among its songs, and as a result, across its span, it reaches into the ethereal while keeping at least one collective foot on the ground.

At its heart, that’s what makes Brandung a progressive work. It is considered unto its natural-sounding recording and the high-end vibrancy of its most shimmering resonances, and patient without being so indulgent as to lose either its own plot or the listener’s fickle attention. It ponders without being ponderous, and while that’s a thing to celebrate, the underlying message Coltaine are sending still feels related toward an ideal of growth. Do not, in other words, anticipate that whatever they do next — perhaps a pivotal ‘third’ album in the series begun by Forgotten Ways — will sound anymore precise to this as this does to the one before it.

There’s much to hear in the spirit of “Brandung” in both its loud and quiet stretches, but what comes through most of all to me is the transience of the moment being captured and the sense that Coltaine are unwavering from their forward direction. No doubt they’ve learned some important lessons about themselves and their sound with Brandung, while engaging a broader audience besides. How those will be applied over the next few years is among the more exciting questions the record asks, but hardly the limit of its interrogations.

Coltaine, Brandung (2025)

Coltaine links

Coltaine on Bandcamp

Coltaine on Songkick

Coltaine on Instagram

Coltaine on Facebook

Lay Bare Recordings website

Lay Bare Recordings on Bandcamp

Lay Bare Recordings on Instagram

Lay Bare Recordings on Facebook

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Benedikt Klemens Berg of Coltaine

—

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I’d describe what I do as creating music together with three people who share the same seriousness as I do, while still leaving space for each of us to express ourselves individually. Music has always been about following what feels right to me. I had vocal and classical violin lessons as a child, but quit when I was 15. I only returned to music at 22, after my mother passed away, when I wanted to connect more with my youngest brother Moe, who was playing guitar in a Black Metal band at the time. That’s when I picked up the bass and taught myself by jamming with people in our local scene. Ever since our first show, I never wanted to lose that feeling again. Several years later, in 2022, we formed Coltaine, and I’m incredibly grateful to have these people by my side.

Describe your first musical memory.

My first musical memory is playing violin at a recital in a church when I was a child and honestly, I didn’t enjoy it at all. I think it was the moment I realized that music has to feel right to me, otherwise it doesn’t work. Funny enough, in November I’ll be back in a church with Coltaine at the Sonus Obscura Festival, sharing the stage with bands like Dool, Dolch, Saturnalia Temple and Daevar. In a way, it feels like a kind of payback time.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Seeing the Mongolian group Huun Huur Tu in a small chapel is my best musical memory so far. Damn, another church… I think they are following me. I had to get up from my seat, move all the way back, and just let myself be carried by the music, crying out of pure joy for almost the entire set.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Before we founded Coltaine, when I was playing in another band with my brother Moe, we often struggled to find people who shared our mindset and seriousness about music. You think you’ve found collaborators with the same drive, only for them to move away or stop making music. Some people in our Karlsruhe music scene even lost their way or their lives due to heavy drug abuse. That period really tested my belief in the value of dedication and focus in creating music.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I think artistic progression opens doors to new possibilities and allows more freedom to express yourself. I feel I have more control over what I want to express in less time, which makes it easier to convey my ideas.

How do you define success?

Being able to stay true to yourself in what you do and continuing to do what you love.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Fiends who gave up on their passion. It’s painful to see people stop doing what they truly love.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

Making an acoustic or a pure drone ambient record. I’m also a big fan of soundtracks, and the idea of composing a score for a movie or a game really excites me.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Connecting people.

Say something positive about yourself.

I always follow through on things I truly believe in, no matter the challenges.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Going with friends to travel in the Balkans in October.

[Photo by Daniel Kilgus.]

https://linktr.ee/coltaine
https://coltaine.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/coltaine/
https://www.facebook.com/coltaineband

https://laybarerecordings.com/
https://laybarerecordings.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/laybarerecordings/
https://www.facebook.com/laybarerecordings/

Coltaine, “Keep Me Down in the Deep” official video

If you’re feeling like it hasn’t been that long since Coltaine‘s previous album, Forgotten Ways (review here), came out in Sept. 2024, you’re right. By the time Sept. 2025 gets here though and their next record, Brandung sees its release on Sept. 5 through Lay Bare Recordings, a year will have passed. Given the anti-genre-or-may-be-all-genre urgency of the prior LP’s expression, and how much Coltaine give the listener to dig through with their at-times-devastating post-sludge complexity, it’s reasonable to think they’d want to get back in the studio quickly. This ground ain’t gonna break itself.

I haven’t heard Brandung yet — September is four months off — but the band have summer fests including Hoflärm in Germany and a newly-announced release tour to coincide with the record’s arrival that also includes stops at a Lay Bare Fest being put on by their label at the venerated The Black Heart in London, and as well as other fests and a couple TBAs that I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re confirmations waiting to be announced. If you have a way to help though, be sure to offer.

More on the record when I hear it. I’ll go ahead and look forward to that while you peruse the following from socials:

‘Brandung’ Album Release Tour 2025. To celebrate the release of our second album Brandung, we’ll be hitting the road for a series of shows starting this September. But before the tour kicks off, you can already catch us at these festivals:

Festival Summer 2025:

07/06/2025 🇮🇹 Piacenza · Desert Fox Fest
02/08/2025 🇩🇪 Burgbrand Open Air
14/08/2025 🇩🇪 Hoflärm Festival

‘Brandung’ Album Release Tour 2025

02/09/2025 🇩🇪 Mannheim – Alter Open Air
03/09/2025 🇩🇪 Berlin · Tommy-Haus
04/09/2025 🇩🇰 Copenhagen · Lytgens Kro
05/09/2025 🇳🇴 Oslo · Blitz
06/09/2025 ⚡️ To be announced
07/09/2025 🇩🇪 Hamburg · Prinzenbar
08/09/2025 🇨🇿 Prague · Club 007 Strahov
09/09/2025 🇸🇰 Bratislava · Koncerty na Garážach
10/09/2025 🇭🇺 Budapest · Gólya
11/09/2025 🇸🇮 Ljubljana · Klub Gromka
12/09/2025 ⚡️ To be announced
13/09/2025 🇩🇪 Freiburg · ArTik
26/09/2025 🇧🇪 Ghent · Kinky Star
27/09/2025 🇬🇧 London · Lay Bare Fest · Black Heart
23/10/2025 🇩🇪 Oberhausen · Helvete
24/10/2025 🇩🇪 Ulm · Hemperium
25/10/2025 🇩🇪 Karlsruhe · Jubez
08/11/2025 🇩🇪 Nuremberg · Sonus Obscura Festival
14/11/2025 🇩🇪 Stuttgart · Juha West
15/11/2025 🇩🇪 Neunkirchen · Gloomaar Festival

Artwork by @missfelidaeillustration

‘Brandung’ will be released on September 5th via Lay Bare Recordings.

Coltaine:
Julia Frasch – vocals
Moritz Berg – guitar
Benedikt Berg – bass
Amin Bouzeghaia – drums

https://www.facebook.com/coltaineband
https://www.instagram.com/coltaine/
https://coltaine.bandcamp.com/
https://linktr.ee/coltaine

https://laybarerecordings.com/
https://www.facebook.com/laybarerecordings/
https://www.instagram.com/laybarerecordings/
https://laybarerecordings.bandcamp.com/

Coltaine, Forgotten Ways (2024)