Black metal very often operates on speed and aggression, overwhelming you with sounds and an attack that seems like it has declared war on your mind. So, when bands in this sub-genre come at you with a different approach, it can be a little alarming at first as you test these waters. There are many ways to play black metal, none of them really wrong.
Swiss/German black metal force ColdCell certainly bring the heaviness and darkness, and they can be aggressive at points. But their music goes a different direction for the most part, burning in place, putting more emphasis on heaviness and battering force in a more calculated manner. Their new, fifth record “Age of Unreason” is a grower for that reason. It doesn’t explode out of the gates and ram violence down your throat. Instead, the band—vocalist S, guitarists Ath and DmL, bassist/samplist In, drummer aW (also of Schammasch)—grinds you in the gears, pouring unrelenting darkness and pressure into your already pounding skull, dragging you along for the ride.
“Hope and Failure” enters ominously, the pace slowly firing up as a haze takes over. Creaky howls dig under your nails as the playing gets more fiery, the drums gut, and strange warbling overcomes, sounds ringing out into oblivion. “Dead to the World” is punchy with a swirling pace, growls charring as the playing moves into ashen territories. The melodies slither, crawling through chaos, the tempo battering as the room begins to spin, desperate calls drilling into rock and melting into the ground. “Left” is foggy and dreary when it dawns, a molten diatribe unfurling as guitars sting and leave blisters. Ferocity explodes from guts, coming down heavier and more forcefully, crazed howls plastering and boiling in turmoil. “Solitary or Solitude” bathes in shadow, shrill howls making your head spin, the guitars bending as the blazes get thicker. The vocals unload as the playing sprawls, charring in place, the guitars slowly dissolving into puddles.
“Meaningless” features Ines Brodbeck of Inezona on guest vocals, and she brings a haunting nature to the track, a heartfelt display that plays with your emotions. The playing plods alongside, the rousing dashes adding beauty to the din, wordless calls reaching out and sending tingles down your spine. “Discord” is fluid and punchy, beastly howls taking you down as S calls, “I reject you, I cannot cast you out.” The growls only get thicker from there, boiling flesh as the playing thrashes, ripping brain wiring and disrupting signals. Closer “Sink Our Souls” is murky with guitars traversing mysteries, the darkness strangling as the scraping growls work you over, the drumming turning bones to paste. The guitars catch fire and increase the humidity, eventually going cold and reflective, the anguish spreading through the mangling howls, fires scorching as the final embers slip into the unforgiving clutches of eeriness.
ColdCell explore the lower levels of abyss and mine it for all its dark misery on “Age of Unreason.” This band never will blind you with speed or overt aggression, as their heaviness comes from the weight that fills out these songs, the pace that stomps you in the dirt. This is a record that will leave you bruised and battered from sustaining this campaign’s agony, letting you know you’ve been in a battle mentally and physically.
For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/coldcellofficial
To buy the album, go here: https://shop.aoprecords.de/gb/
For more on the label, go here: http://www.aoprecords.de/
Meat Mead Metal 