THE BEAST

TODVERHEXEN - Verbotene Hexerei - Reviewed By zwaremetalen ! Check it out here https://zwaremetalen.com/albumrecensies/todverhexen-verbotene-hexerei

Witchcraft banned? No, I hope. After all, we live in the year 2023. Yet an entity from Chile calls his debut Verbotene Hexerei . It is no exception that this Chilean gentleman partly chooses the German language for his one-man band  Todverhexen . Perhaps a bit strange at first sight, but for the black metal scene it is the most normal thing in the world that even a band from the South American country opts for some songs in the German language. It fits the hardness of the genre, the atmosphere and, according to some of us, a bit of arrogance. The so-called “hatred against all” attitude according to the promo. Now we are regularly quite surprised by bands from Chile, I'll just mention the black metal band Xalpen with the here reviewedThe Curse Of Kwanyep . Can this  Todverhexen  match that on a qualitative level?

Now I don't know what they're doing in Chilean waters these days, but I can't deny that this one-man band from driving force Rotserbaen is doing something right, namely unleashing cold underground black metal on the world. Let it be immediately clear that Todverhexen  is incomparable to the aforementioned Xalpen.This gentleman is much more into the underground cult scene, where black metal still sounds unpolished and really dirty. And yes, that is with a ditto sound adjustment. A thick rustling reverberation on the vocals, which sound almost completely unintelligible because of that. Rattling drums that often look up a gear higher, when the highest gear seems to be already engaged. Very gritty, but convincing guitar work, where the riffs are not always dissonant, but show pure cutting black metal. Very occasionally the music seeks out a spherical passage, which we could almost regard as a 'resting point'. But in most cases we are almost continuously bombarded with firm blastbeats, which come close to the Finnish style. Although it has to be said that Chilean bands seem to have a patent on this more and more often. Very aggressive and mean to the bone. And that for thirty-five minutes, which we could call forbidden witchcraft, but your editor on duty thinks it is mostly enjoyable. I do note that the band doesn't show anything new, but that was not at all in line with expectations of course. Just blazing hard underground with that trade!

rating:

75/100 zwaremetalen

Release Date: 3/20/23

FFO: Judas Iscariot, Drowning the Light, Wampyric Rites