Theotoxin continues its journey with a fourth album.
Formed in 2016 in Austria, the band released their debut album the following year. Now led by Flo Musil (drums, Agrypnie, Demersus ad Nihilum), Fabian Rauter (guitar) and Ragnar (vocals, Demersus ad Nihilum, Schattenfall), the band is releasing Fragment: Totenruhe in 2022 via AOP Records.
The album was recorded with Martin Frick (guitar/bass), who recently left the band to let Torsten (Agrypnie, Nocte Obducta, The Wreckage of Erebus…) take its place.
World, Burn for Us quickly makes us sink into a melodic dissonance before the sharp screams begin the assault under blast and frantic riffs. The chilling atmosphere traps us between its airy leads while the solid basis relentlessly hits us with the vocalist’s big hits before Catastrophe in Flesh continues on the band’s virulent Old School roots, even incorporating some early Black/Death elements. The aggressive patterns easily welcome the sharp leads which fuel the visceral rage, then the sound calms down before the impressive Towards the Chasm and its heavy tones. The track is slower than the previous ones, allowing the band to create this heavy and unhealthy atmosphere before sometimes coming back to speed, then quietness for the final, which leads us to Demise of the Gilded Age and its straightforward riffs. We have visceral rage which remains the same when the song is adorned with heavy orchestrations, but also on After Thousands of Years and its cold riffs which let the band pour out all its hatred and strength. The vocalist seems to be totally unleashed, and the few choirs which accompany him only confirm it before Perennial Lunacy brings us back to Black Metal’s rawest roots with an aggressive, catchy and dissonant Punk spirit. Abrasive riffs abuse us until …Of Rapture and Dissolution comes to darken the landscape with slower but equally worrying parts which create a contrast with the sharpest elements. We will also have a strangely soothing melody after an epic charge, then Totenruhe gradually unveils itself to lock us in its as aggressive as disturbing storm, letting disturbing leads compete with raw patterns. The very soft final will let some cries guide us to Frontschwein, a cover of Sweden’s Marduk that the band chose to punctuate the end of the album with warlike sounds which perfectly fit their universe.
If you’ve never heard of Theotoxin, you’re in for a real auditory slap. The band perfectly knows how to be raw with straightforward riffs, but the musicians also reveal us some more unhealthy passages on Fragment: Totenruhe, a powerful album.
95/100