This Wednesday, 27th of August, the sad news reached us of the passing of Jürgen Bartsch, bassist, chief songwriter, and founding member of the German band Bethlehem, whose pioneering vision gave shape to what would later be known as Depressive Suicidal Black Metal.
The announcement was made by the band through the following statement:
“After a serious illness, perseverance and great fighting spirit, our beloved friend and esteemed band founder Jürgen Bartsch passed away on 27 August 2025. In deep mourning and a broken heart. On behalf of Bethlehem.”
The news closes a chapter in the story of one of the most unique and uncompromising acts in extreme metal. From Dark Metal (1994) through Dictius te necare (1996) and far beyond, Bethlehem drew upon currents of black and doom metal to craft something entirely their own, music that channeled despair and madness with a clarity that transcended the notion of genre with its freeform combination of ambience, black, death and doom and thus creating the foundations for the DSBM and dark metal subgenres as well as expanding the limits of extreme metal.
Jürgen Bartsch’s vision was not only foundational but enduring, a reminder that extreme metal could stretch far beyond its supposed limits. With his passing, we lose one of the extreme metal’s most idiosyncratic architects and singular voices. One can only hope that, wherever he is now, Jürgen has found the peace that his music so relentlessly wrestled with in life.
