Review by Saxy S for Tilintetgjort - In Death I Shall Arise (2023)

My adventures into black metal have been suspiciously limited in recent months so thank goodness for a recent release feature in the North for this month. This is Tilintetgjort, a Nordic group and In Death I Shall Arise is the bands debut release. And the style of black metal on display is very traditional in its execution and delivery, which does unfortunately come with more than its share of issues for me. 

I have made it apparent before that the old school, 2nd wave black metal sound isn't really my cup of tea. Something about the stylings of a band like Darkthrone and Mayhem leave me with an empty feeling upon listening and a lot of that comes from the lack of variety and growth in storytelling that I always prefer. I much prefer the larger soundscapes of Emperor and the atmo-black of WitTR and Drudkh. Tilintetgjort are at a disadvantage right out of the gate as they employ a very condensed mix that sound like Burzum. The heavy bass presence with plenty of solo opportunities is nice and does take some of the attention away from the very muddy and frankly unenjoyable guitar timbre. And while the vocals are serviceable most of the time, I found on numerous occasions where the layering was peaking in the mix and it didn't seem like anyone noticed because they occur frequently and it became distracting from the performances.

The bass is doing a lot of this record heavy lifting because the guitars pack no punch in their riffage and they leave the album feeling like a demo than a professionally produced record. Maybe some of this is my background; not being a huge fan of this kind of production, while those who are more familiar with old school black metal will not mind it as much. For me, In Death I Shall Arise is a pretty underwhelming release as a whole, and as a black metal album, does not attempt to reinvent the wheel in any way. There are a couple of quasi-thrash metal passages that sound serviceable, but they seem more like throwaways than ideas to be developed on further releases.

Best Songs: Sannhetens søyler, Mercurial