{"id":105063,"date":"2020-12-11T09:00:32","date_gmt":"2020-12-11T15:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/?p=105063"},"modified":"2020-12-10T17:24:38","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T23:24:38","slug":"december-roundup-urfaust-joose-keskitalo-my-dying-bride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/december-roundup-urfaust-joose-keskitalo-my-dying-bride\/","title":{"rendered":"December Roundup: Urfaust, Joose Keskitalo & My Dying Bride"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The releases do not stop. There is no end.<\/p>\n

\"\"Urfaust<\/strong> – Teufelsgeist<\/em><\/p>\n

Many a black metal band from the Netherlands has Hans brought to you, but one, ages old and stalwart, he has not touched upon, though a new album did they drop this very year. Though in their case black metal might not be the most descriptive; in the very least, it’s an inadequate marker, representing more a starting point from which the layers and layers of ambient, ritual music, musical rituals, keys and IX’s vocals twist to their purposes. I speak, of course, of Urfaust<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Their latest offering, the 5-song, 33 minute Teufelsgeist<\/em>, bears the signs of an Urfaust record, but when it touches upon black metal, it does so mostly from the syllogism of a historic viewpoint. As in, “this sounds like Urfaust and they used to be a black metal band, ergo, this sounds like a black metal record”. Its roots are rather in the ambient half of Urfaust’s enduring work, but unlike 2015’s Apparition<\/em>, it breaches the void between the two with the inclusion of drums, guitar and keys. Representing the stages of intoxication, it moves from the euphoria of “Offerschaal Der Astrologische Mengformen”, its wild keyboards and brief recollections of “Einsiedler” make it one of Urfaust’s finest singular offerings, towards a downward spiral of delirium.<\/p>\n

While “Bloedsacrament Voor De Geestenzieners” isn’t far behind it, the third track fully focuses on the ambient side of the spectrum, on Teufelsgeist’s terms that is, still featuring some metal instrumentation, as does the closer “Het Godverlaten Leprosarium”. “De Filosofie van een Gedesillusioneerde” traverses these two worlds the best, becoming a sort of maladjusted, charred and blackened slice of doom in the process. It is both new and old for fans of Urfaust, and not the worst place to start your excavation into their discography, featuring more than one aspect of their sound in a compact and consistent tome, but it might not be the best either for the very same reason. It does open with two of their finer works as of late though, and I would hold it high among its peers.<\/p>\n