Todeskvlt EP

0.68

Interesting, yet not elementary
65

A short speech opens this release and therefore also the part of 0.68. With its depressive content, the aura of defeatism that it unfolds, together with the organ parts that join in later, the path is set for a dark and haunting trip ... of slow and dark doom.

Left, the title of the track, moves through different stages of atmospheres (rough):
1. the opening with its speech, the sound of rain in the background, the organ parts which join in later, as do howling vocals for a short period of time.
2. Guitars start playing, with a raspy sound that has some resemblance to the first Funeral Moth release, and after the sobbing of a women, the vocals finally enter the scenery, but their first appearance is only very short, but after they have vanished the motive changes and the complexity of the guitar's motives is reduced while a piano/keyboard enters and starts to dominate the music.
3. Later the vocals appear again, whereas the keyboards vanish for that time and as the music turns instrumental again, some kind of recycling of the previously used idea, see above, can be perceived, but the guitars fade out with some weird reverb sound of the second guitar.

Well, the music is well crafted and also the production is good. A bass plays in the background, but with only little impact on the music, due to the little amount of power that it is granted. The distorted guitars and drums play the dominant role in the music, but they are supported by some ambieht texture in the background. In terms of the repetition, 0.68 is able to keep it at a low level and the music progresses rather linear most of the time, with the exception of the end, in which some variation of an afore used idea can be perceived. Also in terms of the use of motives within the segments of the tracks, the German band is able to keep atmosphere at a good level and chords respectively arrangements are not used excessively; they are able to cover this up due to the use of samples and the like.

This track is neat, but not good. Something is missing. Well, how the track opens is great. The speech together with the organs etc. pp. set the stage for a fascinating piece of art, but the band fails to use this later and to web it into the song. It remains unclear, by mere listening to it, what each of the different vocals styles, three have been used, stand for and what kind of message is transported through them. Somehow it is a progression through different stages of atmosphere, but the underlying concept is not revealed.

Interesting to listen to, but certainly nothing more.


Amelotatist:

Let us call it torture doom
65

The second and last track on this split release, applies to the term of torture doom, in vain of Black Bile, Funeral Moth or Sentil. Again the music has been composed in a segmented way and can be divided thusly:

1. Intro (00:00-1:30) - the song opens quite nice, first with some resemblance to Atomkraft, but later with some insane samples, which create a dark and sick atmosphere.

2. Metal part no.1 (01:30-04:20) - weird and harsh screams, like the ones always used by either suicidal black metal bands or those of the torture doom genre are nearly permanently to hear. The music is very slow of course and the motives are repeated to a good deal. Everything is kept to a minimum and very simplistic. With the progression of the songs the motives are varied and change slightly. The main focus lies on the guitars and the vocals, whereas the drums appear only on a small scale as the motives are often very minimalist and the mix has moved this instrument slightly in the background.

3. Violin part (04:20-06:15) - all guitars are vanished and one sometimes also two melody lines are being played by a violin. The contrast to the second segment of the song is indeed an immense one, especially in terms of the harshness and depressive atmosphere ... on the first glance this interlude is a welcome one. On the second, it is only neat and does not really fit into the music. It is a neat 'gimmick' to have something like this sorrowful sounding violin in your song, but if you remove it, then it is gone, but no one would miss it; this impression is fostered through the way the middle-part has been woven into the song: not at all. Like water and all, they both disperse, when you have given the fluids enough time to do so. Furthermore is the violin not able to keep up the atmosphere, which looses some of its intenseness during the middle part.

4. Metal part no.2 (6:15-10:00) - there is no big difference to the first one.

Well... this song is pretty cool, but it would be so much better, would the band use more variation in the motives and create a consistent framework and not this (roughly described) A-B-C-B' approach. Furthermore get the vocals, even though the screams are well performed, a little bit boring, the longer the song takes; I really hope the band is able to offer more vocal styles, because an entire album with merely this one particular style would really suck. The production is good, but some more bass and a better balancing of the instruments would perhaps be neat.

Final comments

It is hard to judge the music of the bands, when there is only one track at hand. Only a glimpse on the potential and the quality of them is shed, whereas it is impossible to predict on how broad both band's spectrum really is and in what degree the here presented music does coincide with it. "Appetizer", such is the proper description of what is offered here. The listener gets an idea, but nothing more.