Dodengang (Folter Records)

 Formed back in 1994, this Dutch Black Metal duo (formerly a quartet) delivers at “Dodengang”, their third full length and seventh release, an amazingly infernal piece of Black Metal. Turbulent (quite inexplicit) Death Metal inspired structures become the base for the whole album, decorated by strident and violent riffs, which delivers a notable hellish feeling. The vocals are one of the most remarkable elements of the entire disc; the vocal work of Jan Kruitwagen (who’s also the bass and guitar player) is completely grim and ripping creating infernal, nightmarish atmospheres somewhat reminiscent to Abigor. The drumming conjugates the velocity with the profundity, mixing blast beat passages with deep and turbulent double bass parts, resulting in a versatile and varied base for the whole music. War inspired atmospheres fills your speakers from the beginning to the end of this album, tracks like “Dodengang”, “Imminence War Death” or “Stalingrad” only confirms that with explosive and somewhat epic chords. “Dodengang” consist in eight tracks clocked at 45 minutes where all tracks (excepting the first one which is just a one minute intro) are clocked between the 5 and 9 minutes, pretty long indeed, but due the varied atmospheres and structures this album never becomes boring, in fact this work maintains all your attention in its macabre aura and hellish musicianship showing an intense blend of brutality and a sick sense of melody. The production is quite descent; the whole musicianship sounds thick and powerful, the vocals sounds just a little low mixed sometimes, especially in comparison with the rest of the instruments, but that’s just a detail… “Dodengang” is a solid piece of extreme Metal, absolutely recommendable, not only for Black Metal diehards, but for any extreme, hellish and obscure music worshiper… (AP)