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Todeskult > Apathy > Reviews
Todeskult - Apathy

TODESKULT: "Apathy" - 40%

skaven, December 3rd, 2011

Apathy - a rather fitting name for Todeskult’s second full-length offering from last year. As I have stated a plethora of times before, there’s an overabundance of bands within the circles of depressive black metal and Apathy seems fairly unnoticable for various reasons, unfortunately.

For sure, this isn’t the cheapest drum machine bedroom project out there, no - there’s a five piece line-up behind this album and everything is executed rather well. But where Apathy fails is providing almost anything significantly personal - not that uniqueness is a requirement for me personally, but Apathy is really grey: partially due to the somewhat powerless production where really nothing stands out and the actual compositions that are mostly quite faceless. And when the album goes on for over an hour, I must say I’m a little bored.

A fitting comparison to Apathy would be a less interesting version of Nyktalgia: Neideck’s desperate screams are pretty much in the same vein and so is the overall spirit on the album. While the atmosphere here is enjoyable, I’d prefer putting on Peisithanatos, for example, for a greater listening experience where I’m not disturbed by musical stagnation.

Now that I look at this, I’ve been mostly bashing Apathy it seems, but I can say that the album most certainly has its fanbase somewhere. Like I implied, the band comprises people who know what they’re doing but this time they don’t really convince me - perhaps I’ve heard too many albums in this vein. If you don’t mind utter greyness in your depressive black metal, then do look into this.

2 / 5
[ http://www.vehementconjuration.com/ ]

Todeskult - Apathy - 70%

Phuling, October 19th, 2009

The depressive black metal style has become completely deluded due to a mass of lowlife acts. To be honest I usually stay quite clear of an album if it’s described as depressive black metal, ‘cause most of it suck. Sure, I like Make a Change… Kill Yourself, Totalselfhatred, Strid and such, even Forgotten Tomb and Shining to some extent. But most bands out there seem to think that lame music with no imagination is depressive as long as the sound suck, the music’s slow and you through in some occasional howling yelps. Well, not in my book. Luckily there’s much more to Todeskult than that.

For one thing the production is actually quite full. There aren’t any problems trying to distinguish noise from distortion, but every instrument is fully audible and the sound is clear. This actually gives the guitars a chance to let you hear the riffs, and they can certainly handle their instruments. The overall riffing is more of a long line of melodic angst. There are some tempo changes to spruce things up, but with the exception of some semi-blasting bits it’s mostly set in a fairly slow pace. Unfortunately the vocals have a tendency to go for that Varg howling that I can’t stand, but since it’s not overly focused on high-pitched yelps I have no problems coping with it.

The album is much what you’d expect from a band of the particular style; but of a higher quality than most. A track like "Inviolable" shows off some inventiveness in the drum department, with some cool ideas. And with the sudden outburst of a faster pace the atmosphere turns to quite aggressive. And these are the parts that I enjoy the most; the faster parts. "…Dem menschen ein wolf" (for one) also contains faster parts, and they accompany it with much harsher vocals. It works great with the cold melodic riffing, and the angst it brings with it is mixed with aggression from the drumming and vocals; making a killer combination.

The songs range from nine minutes to thirteen minutes long, with the exception of the title track "Apathy". It’s just less than three minutes long and is more of an ambient interlude. And I’m impressed with the fact that they actually manage to make ambience interesting, ‘cause this is a great mystical track with some weird-ass tortured screaming. To me all those ambient black metal acts usually just suck, simply ‘cause I don’t get the thrill. But this is somewhat reminiscent of some classic horror flicks, making it a lot more interesting.

In conclusion I have to say this is still not really my cup of tea. I’m not extremely into depressive black metal, but Todeskult does it really well. It’s simply very well performed in every department; from song-writing to execution. Recommended to any fan of the style.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net