Genuinely exciting, melodic black metal of the calibre, ambition and sweeping sentiments of bands such as Dimmu Borgir just do not appear too often. Part of the problem lies in the pomposity and grandiosity inherent in such classical grandstanding and part of the problem lies in the fact that lean too far away from your black metal roots and you’re liable to end up as the kind of grand Guignol pantomime that Cradle of Filth represent these days. German act Totengefluster on their debut album ‘Vom Seelensterben’, however, have got the balance right; here you will find huge swathes of orchestral majesty wound into Hans Zimmer referencing works of sinister beauty, offset by the brutal sound of buzz-saw guitars and lurching, horrific screams. Here you will find monsters and myths, grand majesty and earthen ugliness all intertwined by a band possessed of a clear-eyed ambition that it took Dimmu Borgir some four albums to fully realise.
Following the traditions of the genre, ‘Vom Seelensterben’ opens upon a sinister introduction that is both harrowing and filmic. Gloriously theatrical, but with a sharp knife-edge of threat, it is a grand opening that sees swirling grand piano lightened fractionally by ever-increasing banks of strings as it leads towards the searing ‘Ein Traumgespinst’, a thunderous black metal morass that aligns guttural screams to a double kick drum attack that sounds like the distant fire of machine guns. Production wise the sound is admirably raw without sacrificing clarity and although it is arguable that the band’s ambition demands an ambitious production, the sound they have wrought is powerful enough to savage the listener when played at suitable volume. The music itself, meanwhile, maintains a melodic edge via its effective use of the synth parts, with the effect that it recalls Cradle of Filth at their ‘Midian’ peak. ‘Ein monolog im Mondschein’ grows out of a horrific segue that hauntrs the listener at the tail end of the previous track. It is a relentless blast of toxic vocals delivered with power and precision like razor cuts slashing at you out of the dark, whilst an incongruous choir make their appearance in this village of the damned, sweetening the otherwise old-school riffs with their haunting tones. The band, however, value the ebb and flow of a soundtrack score rather than the traditional all-out assault of a straight-forward metal album and thus ‘Gefrorene Tranen’ is a stunning instrumental that is brief but darkly impressive in its scope.
Having softened the pace it is up to the title track to see the band delivering their brutal best, which they do with gusto, the guitar and echoing vocals a delight in waiting for those with a taste for the soul-crushingly heavy. With the riffs pouring forth in a shower of sparks, the vocals are the revelation here, tearing from the midst of the metallic maelstrom with an unrepentant fury that’s hard to match. It’s a multi-faceted attack and, as on previous tracks, the band have no problem in diving between moods and sounds, ending the track in a graceful, if sinister note, that perfectly sets up the rampaging metal of ‘Der Pakt’ the guitars adopting a sloppy, ferocious edge that slips into the punk territory of latter day Darkthrone albums before the vocals once again tear chinks from the already brutalised surface of the track. In contrast, ‘Blutsegen – Die Stromende erkenntnis’ opens as a mid-tempo grind that gains strength from the sudden change in pace before lurching into a serious of unconventional time changes that serve to keep you off-balance for its four-minute runtime. ‘Ein neur pfad’ opens amidst a whimsical orchestral piece that is rent asunder by the prevailing gusts of storm-force guitar and icy vocals, only for a ghoulish keyboard to fly across the mix like a plastic bat at a Halloween party, suggesting that the band do have a sense of humour when the mood takes them. The album ends with ‘Im tau der toten Morgensonne’, an initially subtle and beautiful coda to the devastation unleashed over the course of the album that grows steadily more unhinged as it plunges towards its climax. Brilliantly played and realised, it showcases the strong classical influence that holds sway even over this heaviest of black metal outfits. A bonus track similarly offers up a rather wonderful orchestral version of ‘Ein Monolog im Mondschein’ that highlights the skill and ambition within this special band.
Symphonic black metal, at its worst, can be dull, overplayed, infuriating and inept. At its best, however, and as it is played here, it can be invigorating, imaginative, bracing and brutal, often over the course of a single song, Totengefluster, on their debut outing, have captured the very essence that makes symphonic black metal so special. Their nods to the thunderous classic works of Wagner jibe perfectly with a neo-classicism that is more directly linked to the orchestral works of film scorers such as Hans Zimmer and the bombastic James Horner, and the orchestral material perfectly augments, without once overpowering, the band’s icy metal power. Epic in scope and delivery, Totengefluster barely put a foot wrong over the course of ‘Vom Seelensterben’, an album that recalls the might of ‘Midian’, ‘Prometheus – the discipline of fire and demise’ and ‘spiritual black dimensions’ and certainly for worshippers at the dark altar of symphonic black metal this is an album you have to add to your collection. Inspiring, darkly wondrous and ferocious, ‘Vom Seelensterben’ is a work of confidence and imagination – essential stuff indeed.
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