Endstille

Verfuhrer

Regain Records 2009

Germanic black metal with a steely determination and calculating mental leaning towards complete extermination is what the new album from Endstille embodies.  Alterations of Roots is a violent and mean spirited horror of devastation with its relentlessly rapid drumming and drilling riffs.  ...Of Disorder follows the same pattern of extremity yet as with the previous track there is an undercurrent of atmosphere and forlorn guitar riffs.  Hate Me...God? bears a striking resemblance to Bathory circa The Return with its cold and Nordic guitars painting a desolate and blackened vision of a night sky full of icy distance.   Iblis's vocals are especially stone-hard on this track.  Up next is Depressive/Abstract/Banished/Despised which are all feelings and attitudes that this track exudes from its somber guitar chords and hypnotic drum patterns.  The mental imagery from this composition is a feeling of drifting into calm yet troubled slumber as rain slowly pours from the heavens.  The track Dead is somewhat of a black metal version of trench warfare.  Explosions of riffing barrages and drums hammer like the constant steel tongue of death spewed forth from machine gun emplacements.  Futile sorrow paints the soundscape like blood soaking into the muddy earth.  The title track has more of a Burzum feel to its mournful riffs and simplistic drums.  There is a tranquility that descends upon the track like a cloud of cyanide gas that extinguishes all life, leaving nothing but the stillness of death.  Iblis's shrieking vocals have more spirit and feeling to them than on Endstilles Reich.  I feel a remark must be made about the excellent coverart depicting Emperor Wilhelm II draped in a blood drenched apron.  It is very stark and cruel at the same time.  Endstille has built upon the strength of their previous album with depth of mood and texture.  Verfuhrer is a virulent and atmospheric album of traditional black metal that leaves a lifeless battlefield strewn with the soggy remains of the deceased as leaden skies seep earthward acid rain.