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

Tilintetgjort's brand of loose black metal first caught my ear back in March of this year when In Death I Shall Arise first dropped.  It was obvious to me from the outset that the millstone around the neck of the album was the production.  Whether a conscious decision or not to go with this demo-style of production, it is by far the most limiting and overall distracting element of the experience and is one decision (if consciously made) that would need rethinking the next time out.  This compressed sound creates some pretty odd clicking on the drums and adds a condensed layer over the guitars that sees them very much in the background of things, albeit they do not ever sound lost entirely.

However, I think there is enough else going on throughout In Death I Shall Arise to make it on of the more promising offerings of 2023 to date.  Me being on a Darkthrone in the past few months is no doubt what taught the AI on my streaming service to suggest Tilintetgjort as a potential like for me.  There is a lot of modern black metal on display here but it is more or less all delivered with tether firmly pegged back with Fenriz and Nocturno Culto sitting astride it.  At the same time, Tilintetgjort are trying to take an avant-garde direction at times - albeit they lack maturity, direction and an anywhere near decent enough production job to achieve it.  There are drum and riff patterns here that are not from any black metal playbook.  Whilst I would not go as far as to say they are successful forays every time, the intent is there even if the delivery is at times off.  With a better production, the flourishes of expansive structure and timings would land much better.  As it stands they are coming out of somersault and landing with too much weight pulling them onto their arse, instead of being able to have the freedom to land and arch their spine to balance the execution out in full.

I still applaud the effort, even though it is only a middle of the range number that I can hold aloft on my judging scorecard.  Give these guys a couple of years, a decent studio and a producer who isn't the vocalist in the band and they will be a different prospect.  Closing track Dommedagsmonument is where the real promise for future songwritng forays lies.  As bold a concept as it is at over twenty-minutes long, the ambition still shines through against the clashing of instruments in the mix.  I am watching this space.