Artist: Blackdeath
Country: Russia
Label: End All Life Productions
Formats: LP / CD
Year: 2024
Russian Blackdeath has never chosen the easy route. Over their three decades span career they have delivered quite a few records that were either hard to wrap your head around or were just plain hard to digest, putting it in a somewhat more positive light: the band always felt that they were from another world. And in some way, that is true. Not so much because they, with their Russian origin, had a totally different view on Black Metal, but even more so because their vision on Black Metal had always been a bit off the beaten tracks. Deliberate or not, having manoeuvred themselves in this particular corner of the Black Metal scene, the band seemed to be just rather comfortable being the odd one out.
This, however, gained them not only praise but also reactions full of disbelief and obvious misunderstanding. But, on the other hand, chef-de-mission Para Bellum explained to me in our interview from two years ago, that he too was not exactly all that satisfied with the majority of his output. While his commentary “pure shit” leaves little to the imagination, that realization seems to especially translate into ever-evolving complexity. Gradually in the Russians’ now quite impressive discography, the music has become “more difficult” and requires some commitment and perseverance from the listener. The pinnacle of this was the latest album released in 2021, ‘Also Sprach Das Chaos’, an album consisting of just two songs of considerable playing time each.
Although the music on this new record feels like a natural continuation of its predecessor, the band has once again stepped it up a notch. With a constant change of tempo and rather nasty sounding eerie leads and skin crawling dissonance ‘Mortui Incedere Possunt’ became another imposing piece of work in the Blackdeath back catalogue. The band’s ability to shape-shift throughout the entirety of the album and never stick to a certain pattern too long has pushed the music into a tornado of partly unfathomable intricacies.
Although there is an unmistakable Jazzy vibe in some of the passage, mainly in the drums, the challenge in the music lies mainly in a more Eastern way of song writing. Something that’s further enhanced by the incorporation of multiple tantrum-like repetitions creating an incantatory atmosphere. Needless to say, there is not much left of traditional Black Metal and it requires the same concentration as the average Deathspell Omega record – which is equal if filled to the brim with dissonance and dysrhythmic enigmas.
The band’s fascination with everything different seems to culminate almost painfully in a lacklustre Dead Can Dance cover (‘Emmeleia’). Although the slightly too overwhelming repetition of that typical Dead Can Dance tantrum, it symbolizes the overwhelming excess of stimuli poured over you. Add on top of that the requisite philosophical lyrics sung in German and you have an album that you really have to take your time to get to the core.
‘Mortui Incedere Possunt’ is a pretty tough cookie that cannot be devoured in one sitting. But it is clearly one that can proudly bear the Blackdeath name, because whether this is your thing or not, there is no band that even comes close to what these Russians (and Dutchman) bring to the table. This is not only a quality, but mostly a compliment.
