De dodenvaart

"Pure evil with an oppressive and obscure spirit drenched in suicidal invocations"
Is how I would describe Hekel's De Dodenvaart if I had too choose one sentence, luckily I can reveal even more about this masterpiece of misanthropic suicidal depressive black metal here.


Imagine Celtic Frost's Danse Macabre instrumental from Morbid Tales with all it's perverse evil and obscure darkness manifested as a Dutch person or group (solo/group?? remains a mystery) performing 7 hymns of absolute hate and loathing. De Dodenvaart is actually one of the few albums released after the early nineties to capture and invoke the same honest anger and sincere depravity of such classics as Darkthrone's A Blaze in the Northern Sky, Mayhem’s De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and Burzum's S/T albums. Also this is one of suicidal depressive black metal's greatest and most powerful releases and amazingly Hekel is also one if it's most original, avoiding the small sub-genre's most overused influences, actually unlike other sdbm bands Hekel doesn't rely on the typical miasmic guitar tones and blurry layering. The guitar tone has more in common with early Darkthrone then say Xasthur and such yet Hekel's riffs and arrangements are pure depressive style. Full of emotion and sad melody much like current Beatrik. Like all Total Holocaust releases the production is perfect!! Never glossy and never generic garage either, just pure.


De Dodenvaart is an album for adults who share in the feelings provoked by Hekel. There is nothing here for rebellion filled "black metal youth" this is not mall metal or faux evil trend metal to piss your mommy off with. This a tight fist wrapped around our black hearts and longing spirits.
Like the days when almost everyone was into Motley Crue, Twisted Sister, etc you had that very few of us who would close their doors and shut the lights off and sit alone in the dark listening as the needle snakes its way through their precious Morbid Tales Lp. Unknown evil, forbidden music. That is why no matter how many so called black metal bands get famous with their cheesy black leather pants and glossy videos and made for headphone production. There will always be those of us who know and cherish those committed and elite groups who create albums that we hold in reverence and whom in us they trust we will feel what they have put their spirits into. Black Metal today has no innocence which is why most of it is so pathetic and targeted to a youth who can't feel it any longer, a youth who can buy their newest "evil Norwegian black metal" cd at the mall just a few racks down from Justin Timberlake’s newest opus of youth orientated "music".
Once you had to hit specialty shops, search thru magazine reviews and obsessively read every word an underground zine printed!!! It's strange that with a genre of music so focused on evil (black), the missing element now is Innocence; the feeling that we are listening to that which we shouldn't, the unknown. For the most part we have lost that in black metal and that is why hordes like Hekel are really the lifeblood of the true underground and in whose music we find such frightening emotions. I am amazed that an album can still give me a chill. And De Dodenvaart is purity of darkness and one of those rare moments of very true black fucking metal!