On Stonegates of Silence Wolfskin collaborates with Anders Peterson (better known as Objekt 4 and for reasons unknown to me, now calling himself Last Industrial Estate).

Lustmord has clearly been a big influence on both these two artists. Bleak, dark, deep, brooding ambience is the theme here. Deep swells of keyboards, scrapings across stringed instruments, lots of atmosphere and for me a bonus point for not over doing the reverb (which so many bands trying to tap into this genre get so very, very wrong).

It does though sound rather dated. I mentioned Lustmord and he was doing this sort of material back in the mid eighties and early 90s and there isn’t anything on here that really develops on those ideas from back then.  Whilst we’re now in an age where any genre, scene or sound can happily sit alongside any other it’s still refreshing if someone makes what they do or attempts to make what they do stand out a little bit or add something slightly different or untried to a very familiar recipe.

The five tracks on this “goodbye” from Wolfskin and friends all follow the same basic theme and it’s quite easy to lose track of which piece you’re listening to as they are all pretty interchangeable. That’s not to say it’s not an enjoyable album. I’ve found it stands up well to repeated listens and I can’t see it becoming something that just ends up gathering dust on a shelf but a little more imagination and experimenting would have given it just that little bit of edge it needs.