ALBUM REVIEW: The Sixth – Thormesis

THORMESIS are one of Germany’s most prolific underground acts, putting out a total of six albums since their formation back in 2006. The band have built a solid following by creating intense yet epic pagan black metal, built around impressive guitar work, powerful vocals and thunderous drums, which creates an incredible sound. Their latest, sixth record, aptly titled The Sixth, is the culmination of thirteen years of great music, arguably proving to be one of their stand out releases, mixing visceral and caustic black metal with a heady and palpable atmosphere together to create some of the most impressive, epic black metal that you’re likely to hear this year.

THORMESIS starts The Sixth off right with Sonnen, delivering dense, visceral guitars, hellish howling and tight, thunderous drums to make the opening moments of the album sound ferocious. It has an underlying, epic edge to it that makes the song sound expansive despite its intensity and aggression. Sonnen is an incredibly powerful statement of intent, and balances the darker, decidedly black metal elements with the more melody driven, atmospheric ones. There’s plenty of great rhythmic passages, interspersed with excellent, yet minimal, lead guitar hooks which add some light and catchy moments to the more feral and vicious moments extremely well. It’s a great start to the album, setting the bar incredibly high right off the bat.

Thy Morbid Drunken Ways jumps out of the speakers and makes an impact as soon as it begins, with some absolutely ferocious sounding drums backing up dense, jarring rhythm guitars and soaring, melodious leads and roaring vocals that help to make this already cast sounding song seem even more monstrous with its dense gutturals and gnarly, rabid shrieks. It’s got a tight, crisp sound but still manages to possess plenty of of the grime and dirty tone of black metal, without sounding so raw that it could give you food poisoning. The shift between distorted and cleaner tones works incredibly well, and ebbs and flows between the two seamlessly, providing a lot of variety that makes every moment of this song sound excellent from the first note to the last.

Chor de Toten strips away much of rage and venom which has characterised this record up until this point in lieu of lighter, cleaner guitar tones, more riff driven musicianship and a more palpable ambience than the last couple of songs have provided. It still has a lot of anger and force behind its sound, but this is takes a back seat in favour of far more atmospheric motifs and fuller, grandiose sounding chords. The drums set a booming, monolithic metre, allowing for the glorious, soaring riffs to take centre stage. The vocals, as on the first offerings, are acerbic and grating, and give this song much of its intensity, contrasting really well with the more reserved tone of the music and giving this song one of its few anchors of extremity. It proves to be a great, and refreshing, change of pace which gives The Sixth a lot of musical depth and diversity, showing the listener another side of the bands eclectic sound.

Continuing in much the same vein as Chor de Toten, THORMESIS start Zeichen zum Grund with vast, epic guitar tones building a solid atmosphere that permeates the whole song and a heavier touch of melody-driven guitar lines that help to elevate the song above the earlier offerings on The Sixth. The song slowly but surely shifts from one motif to the next with ease, gradually changing rather than jumping between riffs and passages swiftly, as has been the case at various points earlier. The steady, precise nature of the drums and the thick thrum of the bass make an excellent back drop to the rest of the music, with the vocals adding a sharp, acidic touch to everything and adding some much needed vitriol into the fray. This is a song that feels incredibly brief, despite running at close to six minutes.

Lichtenmeer, a morose, mid paced piece of melancholic music, is a relative funeral dirge, and has some of the most imaginative and memorable guitar parts on the whole record. It’s a slow burning track that gathers momentum quickly, before it finally launches into the main motif of the song, a fierce, borderline chaotic section which makes great use of cacophonous musicianship and rabid, caustic vocals to make it as intense as possible, before reverting to the more sombre and bleak sound that marked into initial arrival. Some sparse, but well placed, piano compositions come into play close to the half way mark, adding another element to the bands sound which, sadly, doesn’t make its presence known as much as it should on The Sixth. Lichtenmeer‘s second half changes the sound of the song drastically, opting for reverb drenched guitars and some more dancing pianos, without sacrificing any of the overall intensity of the track. Lichtenmeer is doubtlessly one of the best and most musical diverse offerings on the whole album, and it really feels like this should have been the final, climactic moment of the album, rather than appearing three songs from the album’s natural end.

One Last Tear for Every Burned Soul, the penultimate track on The Sixth, is another epic and soaring slab of atmospheric black metal, with dark, sprawling guitars, tight, ferocious drumming and arid, howling vocals that all make this song sound vast and unflinchingly powerful. With some sharp, military drum beats thrown into give this song a driven, aggressive edge, this is a song that has some of the best rhythmic sections on the whole album, with a few minimal lead melodies thrown into the provide some catchy hooks and variety to the sound. The guitar playing especially on here is of a high calibre, giving this song some of the more intricate and interesting arrangements on the whole record. The pianos once again make a brief appearance as the song reaches crescendos towards its peak, and they do an excellent job of making the already monolithic sound come across as even more epic and grand. It’s an amazing track that sets the listener up incredibly well for the records seventh and final offering.

Deadened Skies takes the sound in a slightly different direction, with far more prominent piano/keyboard pieces and injects a lot of life into the song. It is, for the most part, another glorious piece of music, but with a robust, tar thick guitar and bass sound and clean vocals making the song as a whole sound noticeably thicker and denser, flitting between mid tempo sections and far more cacophonous, blisteringly fast moments, giving this lengthy track plenty of variety that helps keep the music engrossing all the way through. It’s a great display of the full range of the bands sound, with ethereal, ambient moments being counterpointed by aggressive and visceral ones. The use of energetic, almost folky keyboard parts at The Sixth‘s closing minutes really works well, and proves to be a great final touch which makes the very end of The Sixth sound brilliant, leaving the listener eager for more of the same.

The Sixth is an incredibly impressive record that does a great job of balancing between dark and aggressive black metal and far more epic, atmospheric moments. The musicianship is brilliant, and THORMESIS know when to shift from one sound to another to maximise the emotive power of their music, making use of various tones, performance styles and tempos to make the music as diverse and catchy as possible. It’s definitely got a very fierce and intense sound at many points, but THORMESIS focus on creating an atmosphere as well, which makes The Sixth sound all the more expansive and monolithic. THORMESIS clearly aren’t running out of ideas at this point in their musical career, and it will be very interesting to see how the band manage to follow up this album.

Rating: 8/10

The Sixth is out now via MDD Records. 

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