Black Metal History Month - Seltsame Erden : "Gedankentempeln"

 

This week I learned there is an entire corner of the internet devoted to "fans' of black metal who developed this group of witch-hunting stormtroopers who compile videos and lists of bands they suspect are Nazis or Fascists. They have even pushed it so far as to say they are supporting left-wing black metal bands who align with their personal politics and thus seek to at the very least cancel black metal bands who do not see the world in the same way they do. Meaning they are themselves fascists who seek to control the narrative. Thus trading in corpse paint for clown grease paint. This band should be careful or they will most likely find themselves cancelled at this point for just being German. 

These guys are dark enough and bear a foreboding charge of blast beats. Though three songs in, there is a uniformity to the vocals that begins to lose me as the range of the dynamics here is fairly limited. For the first two songs, this works pretty well. The second song even slows down to more of a harrowing throb. By the fourth song, I thought I was listening to the third song still, so this sonic uniform causes the songs to eventually all sound the same. Sure there is a hypnotic buzz created by the tremolo picking that is not unlike the mood earlier Darkthrone created. If you already own those albums, why would you want more of the same? Here is where we find ourselves at the crux of this month's mission statement to find Black Metal that goes above and beyond the status quo.

The status quo is an ominous and recognizable sound of black metal, But it is just that a sound and not a song. These guys are great at capturing this sound. Perhaps this sound is all you need. You have no interest in songs as you are not that evolved. This is common in many teenagers whose brains are still forming, in fact, the adult human brain is not fully formed until the age of 25. The last track is just an outro that will be fun to play at Halloween parties. This means we have only four actual songs on this album which sways things percentage-wise in their favor. I  will then give this album a 7. as they are convincing in the sound of black metal and for some that is all you need, b ut they are skilled at it.

pst68