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vote
7.0
- Bands:
DØDSFERD - Duration: 00:56:40
- Available from: 10/05/2024
- Label:
-
Hypnotic Dirge Records
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The path of the Hellenic Dødsferd is made up of almost twenty-five years of career, spread over twelve albums and an abundant number of splits and EPs which form a curriculum certainly enviable in terms of quantity and perseverance. The same cannot be said for the quality level of the various releases, some fluctuating and too heterogeneous, which saw the group led by Nikolaos 'Wrath' Spanakis go from depressive style albums to others almost black'n'roll, sometimes in a chaotic and unstructured.
A different discussion can be made for today's Dødsferd, who come out with a work that sounds like a manifesto of intent starting from the self-celebratory title “Wrath” and which presents the group in a much more intense and violent guise, not very original but decidedly effective.
Forty minutes divided over six tracks (seven in the vinyl version) ranging from five to ten minutes in length, for a fairly classic, violent and well-structured black metal, sometimes perhaps a little too verbose but still fluid and enjoyable.
The depressive influences and the references – not always very happy – to Alcest almost completely disappear and instead there is space for tempos that are almost always sustained and guitars that alternate the classic, discreetly melodic black riffs with others from the German thrash school, for a general feeling of urgency that finds its peaks in the anguished “Heaven Drops With Human Filth” or in “Decay Of Sanity”, two excellent examples of how to write songs with a non-obvious but still flowing structure.
Of course, not everything is perfect and some moments, although good, sound a little too verbose, as in “Restoration Of Justice” or in the ten minutes of “Raging Lust Of Creation” which gets lost in some excessive lengths that risk making you lose the thread of the conversation; what works great instead are songs like “Spiritual Lethargy”, direct and without too many frills that recall the best Dõdsrit.
A separate discussion must then be made for “Back To My Homeland… A Beast In Calm”, a track lasting over thirteen minutes present exclusively in the vinyl version but worthy of attention, given its experimental and disorientating nature: the song starts off as a sort of psychedelic depressives with ambient tones and flows into a lo-fi almost hip-hop finale, recited in the native language and reminiscent of the more eclectic Manes of the “How The World Came To An End” period. A side of Dødsferd that is unexpected, encouraging and deserves to be explored further.
For now, however, let's settle for an album that, although not free from some defects, manages not to get lost in anonymity.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM