Todtgelichter – Angst (2010)

One of the most interesting (at least for us) German Black Metal bands has to be Todtgelichter and their near-Avant Garde Black Metal style that is not easy to fully digest. Making their highly anticipated return with “Angst”, the band dropped the kvlt BM logo for a modern ‘urban’ one and has an even weirder look than before (imagine blue man group but in full white outfits).

“Angst” takes the listener through 54 minutes of pure brilliance with perfectly interwoven influences of Post-Black Metal and Post-Rock elements alongside traditional Black Metal elements. From the first song in this release (“Café of Lost Dreams”) you can tell that this release will be special and different since it starts very Black Metal minded but the guitar work is heading in a separate direction.

The band’s abilities to create outstanding contrasts between raw and brutal BM sections with intelligent songwriting and brilliant tempo changes is unparalleled (well… maybe Agrypnie can also pull it off). This ability makes songs like “Bestie” quickly turn from Black Metal assaults into beautiful melodic pieces and vice-versa. The use of clean male and female vocals also adds more spices to this well seasoned mixture of elements.

Other songs like “Oblivion” and “Phobos & Deimos” take different shapes and forms through their duration, creating a very unsettling listening experience for people used to ‘more of the same’ kind of bands. The best song in this release comes under the name of “Neon”. In this brilliant piece the band paints brilliant Post-Rock/Black Metal canvases and fills them up with Marta’s great vocals. The exploratory passages (namely at 3:35) showcase great guitar work and brilliant atmospheric efforts by the band.

Closing off the album we have “Moloch” a tracks that will easily fool the listener into thinking it is more straightforward than it actually is. This song features the band’s Black Metal side of things but nicely wrapped around different melodic passages. “Almahlich” nicely closes down things in a very slow pace allowing the listener to evaluate what just happened in this brilliant release.

In general, we think that Todtgelichter has greatly improved and it demands more attention from listeners all over the world. “Angst” features 8 brilliant tracks that demand the listener’s full attention and when digested, they will probably be some of the best songs you have ever heard. We are impressed by the efforts of all band members since everybody seems to be working in perfect harmony for this multi-faceted release. If you like ‘intelligent’ Black Metal, you should hurry up to the band’s website and order this very impressive release.

Release: December 3rd, 2010

Country: Germany