ALBUM REVIEW: Thanatophobia – Unendlich

Baltimore’s UNENDLICH find themselves in a difficult position: their Misanthropic Sedition EP (read our review here), which came out at the end of last year, was arguably the best material the band had put out to date. The act of improving upon and surpassing this excellent piece of music is an unenviable task. However, the duo of Michael Connors and Anthony Rouse have enough talent as both songwriters and musicians between them to make following up this astounding record fairly easy. Hot on the heels of Misanthropic Sedition, UNENDLICH‘s third full length record, Thanatophobia, sees the band further refine their sharp and acerbic sound, creating yet another masterpiece of vicious, melodic and intense black metal.

Oblivion Of Time jumps out of the speakers, launching straight into a thick, speed-driven motif characterised by a solid groove and dense, oppressive guitar hooks. The drums are intricate and authoritative, acting as a great base around which to build the rest of the song. The guitars are dark and aggressive, and contrast with the vocals, which are far more shrill and biting than the overall ferocity of the musicianship. With this brief opening track, UNENDLICH lay down an excellent template for the rest of Thanatophobia to surpass, setting the bar to a lofty height right out of the gate. Shadow Of Mortality takes Thanatophobia down a much more mid paced, ambient and melodic path, with a few off kilter rhythms adding a touch of weirdness and progression to the sound. This is a truly epic song, with robust, soaring guitars, catchy lead hooks and primal, thunderous drums all creating an impressive slab of haunting melodic black metal. The vocals, as always, carve through the mix and adding plenty of sharp, grating moments which work well with the tone of the music. It’s another great change of pace that injects even more variety into this record.

Death Rights is a fierce, energetic and atmospheric track that does an excellent job of coupling brilliant guitar and drum work with a palpable, epic feel, which underpins the song throughout. The guitars possess plenty of progressive, and sudden, time changes that helps add to the frenzied, chaotic bent of the song, whilst the drums set a thunderous metre in the background. There’s some really impressive musicianship here from UNENDLICH, and it’s hard not to get caught up in the disjointed, quirky melodies and rabid, snarling vocals. The Gods We Trust ups the ante with regards to the aggression, with robust, pounding drums working in tandem with some razor sharp, interesting lead guitar motifs which are driven by a vicious discordance that manages to blend together the best aspects of a traditional black metal sound and the memorable, catchy hooks of a melodic death metal track. Overall, this song is an incredibly slick and haunting piece of music with a noticeable, venomous emotive quality to it that helps to bring the music to life.

Becoming Fire picks up the mantle held by Shadow Of Mortality, focusing on a less speed-orientated sound, allowing for the excellent compositions come to the fore. Jumping between biting, acerbic passages and far more grandiose, soaring moments with ease, and even throwing in some tar thick, gnarly chugging into the mix for good measure, this is a masterclass in how to write varied, and above all dark metal music, without any one part feeling forced or out of place on here. Secrets Of Consequence, with its glorious opening acoustic section, layering the atmospherics on heavily, allowing the music to become thoroughly engrossing right from the first note. As the acoustic guitars give way to vast, distorted ones, and an eerie, wailing vocal comes in, the song proper begins; some some great spoken word passages and truly tortured sounding shrieked vocals, carry the song, with far more restrained guitars and bass shrouding this song in a sepulchral fog. The drums dance away in the background, injecting plenty of intricacy into the song, and proving to be some of the best drumming performances on the whole of Thanatophobia. As the song comes to a close, the acoustic guitar creeps back in, lulling the track to its natural conclusion.

The Final Error, by contrast with Secrets Of Consquence, is a mammoth, muscular blackened metal monstrosity, with some robust, authoritative drums and dense, crushing groove inflected guitar hooks. UNENDLICH throw a few more hypnotic, minimalist acoustic pieces into the maelstrom to provide a semblance of calm within the storm, which works really well and helps pepper this song with a healthy dose of musical variety which keeps the song intriguing. For the most part, however, it is a fierce and frantic black metal offering with a crisp, precise production quality. Thanatophobia‘s titular track is easily the best song on the whole release. From its majestic opening moments, with hints of symphonic elements and Gothic flourishes, which reappear as the song reaches its peak, through to the genuinely aggressive, visceral edge of the music on here, it stands as one of the most eclectic and impressive songs on the whole album, with one foot firmly planted within progressive metal, without straying too far from the cacophony and rage of black metal. The guitars and drums are truly energetic, and manage to capture a darkness and sense of urgency that helps elevate this song from a good one to a truly amazing one. If there is any criticism to be levelled at this particular gambit, it’s that it is criminally short, and could easily have carried on for a couple of minutes without outstaying its welcome.

UC3, Thanatophobia‘s penultimate offering, may not be the record’s best song, but it is certainly one of its most vicious points. With the collective presence of the machine gun precise drumming, blistering and caustic guitars and equally abrasive vocals, UNENDLICH create a gargantuan wall of noise that sets the work very quickly at knocking the listeners head clean off. With a few more minimalist, melody driven portions, this song jumps between chaotic motifs and far more measured and ambient ones seamlessly, with the aforementioned sparse moments only serving to accentuate the intensity and primal roar of the rest of the song. It’s a fantastic song that sets the listener up for the climatic song perfectly. My Own Misery is a surprisingly straight forward slab of acerbic black metal, for the most part, with haunting diminished chords and tight tremolo picking marking the vast majority of this song, and working incredibly well alongside the hellish vocal howls. There is, however, an underlying atmosphere that cloaks this track throughout, and, when coupled with some sublime guitar passages with a cleaner tone and hair raising vocals, manages to make this a great track to bring Thanatophobia to a close, making for a suitably bombastic and expansive final statement which leaves the listener wanting more even after the last notes fade away. It’s a brilliant end to a brilliant album.

This is yet another fantastic album from UNENDLICH, who are proving to be one of the best black metal bands in the underground. It more than equals the impressive music laid down on Misanthropic Sedition, and in many places, most notably the Thanatophobia‘s opener, Oblivion of Time, it manages to be even better. With plenty of different musical styles thrown into the mix, it is also an eclectic and interesting album, and it’s almost impossible to get bored with listening to it. The sound is leaner, the musicianship is more advanced and intricate, and the production is noticeably more polished and crisp, allowing even the most minute aspects of a songs sound to come to the fore. In much the same manner that UNENDLICH‘s last EP proved to be one of the best extreme metal releases of 2018, Thanatophobia could likewise end up being one of the top black metal records to see the light of day in 2019.

Rating: 9/10

Thanatophobia is out now via Horror Pain Gore Death Productions. 

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