Dødsferd rises from the underworld.
The Greek project led by Wrath (vocals/guitar, Drunk Motherfuckers, Grab, Nadiwrath) and Neptunus (drums, Terror Detonator) unveils in 2024 Wrath, its twelfth album in collaboration with Fucking Your Creation Records and Hypnotic Dirge Records.
The band kicks off with Restoration of Justice, a raw track rooted in its Old School roots that exploits both the abrasive sound and the atmospheric aspect of Black Metal. Furious vocal parts and gut-wrenching melodies blend together to surge relentlessly until Decay of Sanity takes its place, displaying equally stifling rage coupled with persistent, aggressive drumming. The scathing harmonics haunt the impenetrable, catchy rhythm that accompanies the possessed screams and its more ethereal pauses based on a sound that is more or less clear, but will soon be corrupted again. The hurricane integrates a more melancholic dimension with Raging Lust of Creation, which is adorned with a more or less violent epic veil, but you can feel with this track that the band has truly moved on to the next level with the first big acceleration or haunting slowdown that so naturally ignites only to stop with Spiritual Lethargy, where brutality reigns. The track is a perfect blend of scathing leads, cavernous screams and a frantic rhythm that occasionally turns into haunting passages, while a noisy introduction awaits us on Heaven Drops with Human Filth, where fury takes possession of the two musicians to create a veritable torrent of aural lava. The track literally honors Black Metal’s most unhealthy roots by molesting us, as does Failure ?blaze in ?our ?xistence, which returns to the style’s coldest influences to recreate that apocalyptic ambience that was born in the late ’80s, punctuated by small, livelier bursts.
Owners of the vinyl edition are treated with a final track of over thirteen minutes called Back to my homeland…, where we feel all DSMB’s nostalgia on a basis of oppressive Black Metal/Dark Ambient, followed by a few surprising Rap moments, but which also end up falling into nothingness.
After coming back to life and even going live, Dødsferd have concocted a true masterpiece. Wrath is straightforward, icy, harrowing and fascinating, and will undoubtedly mark not only the band’s discography, but also the Black Metal scene of 2024.
95/100
