THULCANDRA “Under A Frozen Sun” (2011)
Label: Napalm Records
Track-list :
1.In Blood and Fire
2. Black Flags of Hate
3. Ritual of Sight
4. Under a Frozen Sun
5. Aeon of Darkness
6. Echoing Voices (A Cold Breeze of Death)
7. Gates of Eden
8. Life Demise
THIS EARTH IS BLUE LIKE HELL
Just crazy and probably presumptuous (the Swedish will hate me now…), your favorite author will seek an incredible challenge, that never mention almost a sacred name of Dissection (and there Steffen Kummerer will kiss me, tears in the eyes) in his fabulous new column dedicated to the best of dark Metal that I love so much… But “crazy!” you yell , with the Pack, lie, prepared a pounce on the gentle lamb I am…
Therefore, see this soft (but scarred) Foodland which leads me, drives me every day a little bit more to the inaccessible gemstones of the night, these mysterious stars , Yes, this motherland, immeasurably large, these forests are my cradle, this snow blinds the most reckless, on which noble conquerors have disemboged blood and guts, for a little more railway, copper, wood, for a little more of life, a little more freedom, the crucified land is the gift that I have to leave to future generations, a parchment inked love and hate, hope and dropout…
This land that flouts their feet today the (anti?) cosmic magicians THULCANDRA, with their second album “Under A Frozen Sun”, (following the already superb “Fallen Angel’s Dominion”, which entered delightely my heart, making me jumping with in the sink of a beloved melancolia, a pit of pleasure), a German real condensed swedish soul from 1990s metal when the visionary (but not very sharp) Øystein Aarseth was still alive and that Fenriz was not yet fall in a acid-trip, when Black Metal was a threat.
Pulling of darkness (Obscura?) here it looks under hellish deflagrations album of recognition among his peers now. No low profile (an intense collective work), gifted students exceed master(s). Pachydermic production but spectral with Darkthrone or Vinterland collision, it is robust, blood animed are not anaemic (Steffen Kummerer – Vocals, Guitar, Acoustic Guitar + Sebastian Ludwig – Guitar + Tobias Ludwig – Bass), and it carries torrents of emotions, neurasthenic roller-coaster, but refreshing at the end (there, you see, I am “always”, “still” in life…).
More black than black, this intersideral metal and yet rooted deeply in the lithosphere hit all our resistors. Artwork bluish in the great tradition of the artist Necrolord, always inspired, riffs hammering neurons and skin (Black Flags Of Hate), naturalistic voice / “Das Unheimliche” (“Ritual Of Sight”), solos as an sparrowhawk to the lookout (“Under The Frozen Sun”, doom in his throbbing starts), skinned arpeggios (“In Blood On Fire”), it is chaos, but it is also a reign…
The “Aeon Of Darkness” warrior with his violated casks and his Scandinavian spirit (this piece could have found a place on any Amon Amarth)… you plundered mercilessly the spinal cord, and on land, you are defeated.
Embraced by death, will you open your lips, friend?
This vicious Kiss will not forgive and distil through you to ransom to your soul, capitulum as death seems gentle (“Echoing Voices”), as a foretaste of Paradise ( “Gates Of Eden” and its 9 mn 20′ ends up as an Opeth or Dimmu Borgir in levitation, just phenomenal).
The last song concluding the album ” Life Demise” (by the sons of Dismember, Unanimated) is an absolute tribute, it is clear that we are dealing with a heavy weight of the extreme Metal, which knows the honor of the past projects without chains or fetters (without sentence… so on step, they have to pay a heavy price too…) to a glorious destiny.
Welcome here without doubt, the talented and omnipresent Steffen Kummerer (Obscura, Hellfarht) offers you The Truth with this new album of THULCANDRA, manifesting the Intelligence Black Metal, which puts the genus (alongside others such as Wolves In The Throne Room or Endstille, in another kind) to the confines of sublime.
On my land, Steffen, you’re at home.
(I won my bet of departure…?)
Reviewed by MEL DELACROIX