Here we have one of those underappreciated releases that no one gives a damn about. It’s an album-length demo from 2012, although it’s almost unfair to call this a demo since it exceeds plenty of full-lengths sonically and in its cohesion (so this review will refer to it as an album). I often find myself saying, “if this had come out in 199X, it might have been an impressive release, but without that historical context it serves no purpose”. Yet for some reason, the fact that this came out so far away from the “golden age” really adds intrigue, perhaps because it grasps a spirit that felt so out of reach at the time.
You can tell that its writers were a bit caught up in the zeitgeist of DSBM that was so trendy back then. While that might fail to sell you on it, they eschew the one-dimensional subgenre’s worst elements, executing it more in the style of Strid’s widely beloved EP, while also capturing the romantic and the morose that can be found in Beatrik’s doomy passages. With that said, classifying the music as “depressive black metal” would be misleading, as the best black metal usually has a degree of melancholy; Dödfödd just happen to explore that aspect more than the average band.
While there are some light keyboards, Dödfödd achieves a “symphonic” effect with more traditionally metallic instrumentation: a compelling array of clean guitar textures (sometimes even “twangy”) that wrap around distorted/tremolo’d counter-arrangements, and decisive bass parts that serve as a third line of melody. Those moments of grief are contrasted with faster sections that call back to the evil of early Emperor, albeit less grandiose. On a cursory listen, these moments might sound derivative, but they always contain some special detail that differentiates the band from its forebears and contemporaries. Clever enough arrangements achieve something novel without relying on stylistic evolution, and you’ll find riffs that always carry you through unexpected chords and rich voice leading.
The production also serves this album quite well. In 2010, it seemed like there were two extremes in black metal: hyper-produced, artificial lamestream plastic, and low-effort bedroom rubbish. This certainly leans toward rawness, but manages to be pleasing to the ears. With a real drum performance and clear separation between the instruments, it captures their atmosphere and showcases their arrangements perfectly. The natural timbre lends this album a timeless sound, even if some aspects are charmingly amateur.
The term “undiscovered gem” is hackneyed at best, and infuriating at worst. How many times have you wasted time on a mediocre album because undiscerning internet metalheads proclaim it a lost masterpiece (so they can justify a rare patch for their “battle vest”)? I promise: such garish praise is actually appropriate here, for once.
