I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who has a great amount of love for Scandinavian death metal, especially since some of the best death metal scenes come from these filthy northerners. Denmark, however is not a scene which has mustered a large metal scene, atleast compared to the other Scandinavian monsters like Finland or Sweden. Undergang, must some up greatly to the short list of remarkable Danish bands, alongside Artillery and Invocator. Undergang's material is some of the filthiest, doomiest material I've heard in quite some time. Even Macabra, whose fantastic brand of old school death metal was some of the freshest of its kind, falls short in front of Undergang's uncontrollably eclipsed sophomore.
If you are looking for filthy, macabra and abnormally grotesque, look no further then this. The riffs are just what you may expect from a filthy, muddy death/doom album that draws roots from usual suspects. The production is unbelievably murky and torn apart, blistered on multiple occasions, causing the album to sound as disordered and cryptic as possible. The stench of the rotting old school death/doom tone is there aswel, polluting and contaminating the album impetously. With such obvious tone manupulations, the album exposes incredibly low and degraded tones outside. The tone and production sickness is the absolute imperative of death/doom, and since Undergang have passed the hard part of the test fluently with ease, the second part comes as easy and cutting butter. The riffs are usually Incantation-esque tremolo picking, though there is a sufficient number of grooving thrashing, randomly churning with the outrageous tremolo bursts. The usage of palm mutes is also frequent, as it gives the feeling of a decaying zombie eagerly prowling you, as if in a horrendous nightmare.
While you may expect the tempo changes to be rather less various, it is indeed quite the opposite. Sure, ''Til Døden Os Skiller'' has many of its riffs spread out densely and gloomingly but there is also a more dynamic side of the spectrum, one which shows good prevalence throughout the whole album. The occasional double-bass and blast beats with sordid and invidiously fierce riffing combinations on ''Strangularet'' and ''Ormeorgie'' are perfectly done batterers that work even better with a frequent change in tempo, when the drummer decides to choke the thunderous and concise strikes of the palm mutes. Technical moments can also be witnessed during the faster sequences of the album, though these are only groovy riffs with some open note playing, and tend to happen at seldom. The vocals are scary good. They lay hidden admist all the overwhelmingly heavy riffage and battering drums, so they aren't quite audiable. The vocal style is like a very deep, grindy Pillard vocal styling, often heard better when the hoarse growls come, during bridge sections or doomy passages.
I would not have liked Undergang as much as I do if it didn't have the chaotic and murky atmosphere and muffled production that it has. As I said, the production is absolutely crucial on an album like this, even mandatory when the band ventures into doomier territory like on ''Radden Messe'' or the ending sequence on ''Nar Bornene Dor'' (I apologise for incorrectly spelling those). Undergang shows a lot of promise as I will also get on their previously released effort, which has also been quite praised. The fithiness that this album has is immense, and probably the most crucial factor aswel. With its horrific album art, terrifying riffage and ridicolous but grim intros, ''Til Døden Os Skiller'' could have easily been the theme music to an 80's horror film. It's a solid album, get dirty now by purchasing it.
Highlights:
Kadavermarch
Strangularet
Til Døden Os Skiller
Rating: 90%
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