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Dark and weird, Waldteufel unleashes a borderline hypnotic album with "Sanguis," a Teutonic excursion into doomchant. I have coined that word, "doomchant," because it's easy to think of this as a blend of mystic German chanting and doom guitars. The guitars aren't always present (though when they are the music is more interesting), mind you. Some tracks are given over largely to ambience and that slow German chanting. But other tracks feature big, fuzzy, distorted guitar riffs that plod along, creating denseness and atmosphere out of which the vocals drift on their way to your surprised ears. In the midst of all this are occasional infusions of world music instrumentation that makes for a little added twist to the experimental focus of this strange and category-defying CD. Minus the guitars, this might be a great meditation or go-to-sleep CD (or driving music if you're relaxed but not drowsy). But with the guitars, it makes for thick, odd and moderately alluring music. -- review by Kristofer Upjohn
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