Photo by Mario Schmitt
From left to right:
Nikita Kamprad – Vocals, Guitars
Tobias Schuler – Drums
Nicolas Rausch – Guitars
Alan Noruspur – Bass (playing for Nicolas Ziska)
DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT formed in Würzburg, Germany in 2009, the brainchild of guitarist and composer Nikita Kamprad and original vocalist Tobias Jaschinsky. The band’s early beginnings were humble but explosive: their self-released debut quickly sold out, drawing attention across the underground metal scene. A reissue in 2010 with newly recorded drum parts by Christian Bass (Heaven Shall Burn, ex-Night in Gales) established the band’s first official lineup and led to extensive touring across Germany and Europe. From the outset, DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT were set apart not just by their technical prowess, but by a philosophical inclination that would become the band’s artistic hallmark.
Their 2012 sophomore album, Unstille, expanded on their debut’s melodic harshness, while introducing a deeper emotional weight. It also marked the first appearance of drummer Tobias Schuler, whose intricate and expressive playing would become central to the band’s identity. Though vocals on Unstille were still performed by Tobias Jaschinsky, he would leave the band shortly after its release. Kamprad took over vocal duties in the months that followed, stepping into the role of frontman in time for the writing and recording of their next album.
Stellar, released in 2015 via Season of Mist, solidified the band’s stature within the modern black metal landscape. Drawing from post-rock and progressive influences, the album embraced wider dynamics and cinematic structures, aligning them with the likes of Wolves in the Throne Room and Deafheaven, without sacrificing their own Germanic rigor and introspection.
In 2017, Finisterre signaled a conceptual leap forward. It confronted themes of isolation, personal dissolution, and spiritual finality across sprawling arrangements and stark tonal shifts. This period saw further lineup changes, with the departure of guitarist Sascha Rissling and bassist Giuliano Barbieri, and the arrival of Nicolas Rausch and Nicolas Ziska. Finisterre also marked their first chart placement in Germany and set the stage for increasingly ambitious live performances.
A live album, Live in Berlin (2019), captured the raw power and cathartic energy of the band’s concerts, affirming their reputation for immersive, emotionally charged performances. But it was Noktvrn, released in 2021, that truly redefined what DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT could become. Inspired by the ambiguous state between wakefulness and dreams, and drawing influence from classical composers such as Chopin and Arvo Pärt, the album saw Kamprad experiment with clean vocals and subdued textures. It was both a thematic and sonic breakthrough and was received by critics as their most refined and contemplative release to date.
With Innern, their sixth studio album, DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT return with their most introspective and compositionally expansive work to date. A meditation on suffering, transformation, and the fragile thresholds of the human psyche, Innern refines the band’s signature blend of black metal intensity and post-metal atmosphere. The title, German for “inward”, anchors the album’s conceptual weight: a turning away from the external, into a realm of personal reckoning, silence, and renewal. Across six meticulously crafted tracks, the band explores cycles of disintegration and emergence, inviting listeners to confront the deep and often contradictory nature of existence itself.
DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT stand now at the peak of a fifteen-year evolution. Their music is as concerned with silence as it is with sound, as shaped by introspection as by fury. As they prepare to bring Innern to European stages in autumn 2025, they do so not as provocateurs of extremity, but as artists navigating the fragile space between collapse and clarity. In a genre often defined by spectacle, DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT remain committed to vulnerability, transformation, and truth.
Discography
Innern (Album – 2025)
Noktvrn (Album – 2021)
Live in Berlin (Live-Album – 2019)
Finisterre (Album – 2017)
Stellar (Album – 2015)
Unstille (Album – 2012)
Agonie (EP – 2011)
Der Weg einer Freiheit (Album/Reissue – 2010)
Der Weg einer Freiheit (Demo – 2009)
Former members
Sascha Rissling – Guitars (2012 – 2017)
Giuliano Barbieri – Bass (2012 – 2016)
Tobias Jaschinsky – Vocals (2009 – 2012)
Christian Bass – Drums (2010 – 2011)
DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT 