Review by Ben for Bethlehem - Dictius te necare (1996)

Another great Bethlehem album from a musical point of view, destroyed by a spastic muppet vocalist.

I really enjoyed Bethlehem's debut album Dark Metal. The mix of depressive black metal with death doom made for an extremely dark and at times moving release that can be recommended to fans of both styles. I was tremendously excited to hear Dictus Te Necare as its rating on Rate Your Music is higher than the debut, suggesting to any sane person that it is fact a better album. But I'm starting to doubt how much sanity has been involved with the rating of this album, not to mention the album itself. When I listen to the music on Dictus Te Necare, I find the same enjoyment that I discovered on Dark Metal, but it's such a struggle to connect with it for one main reason. The vocals!

I want you to imagine something if you can. Most people reading this review will have heard and probably adored the work of Burzum. There are many reasons why Burzum's works are so loved, but Varg Vikernes' tortured screams on albums like Hvis Lyset Tar Oss are certainly a highlight. His performances are raw and filled with unbridled emotions with the result being incredibly moving. Now imagine if you can what Varg might sound like if he had consumed a couple of bottles of bourbon and was asked to perform his vocal duties while trying to dodge thrown objects from an audience of angry Mayhem fans. Are you having trouble? Well fear not! One listen to Dictius Te Necare will go a long way to describing what this laughable display might sound like.

Landfermann's vocals are so disgustingly awful and distracting that I have to force myself to hear past him to the perfectly adequate music below. In fact, a lot of this album sounds like Dark Metal in style, with black metal riffs making way for slow, atmospheric doomy sections regularly. The tone wouldn't be all that different either if this spastic muppet hadn't vomited all over it. I know there will be plenty out there that think I'm soft cause I can't handle how "extreme" his performance is but it's not a matter of extremity. It's a matter of conviction. Landfermann sounds like he's taking the piss both literally and figuratively and the result is a parody of what black metal stands for. Maybe this was always the intention as Bethlehem seem to enjoy being chaotic and unusual, but I for one don't think comedy has any role to play in the world black metal.

I've given the album plenty of time to sink its claws into me and there's no denying that there's some very nice stuff going on here. I get the most enjoyment out of tracks where Landfermann is kept reasonably in check, such as Tagebuch einer Totgeburt. Die anarchische Befreiung der Augenzeugenreligion would be a stunning track under normal circumstances which reminds very much of My Dying Bride for some reason (I'm sure the main riff can be found in one of their tracks, but I can't figure out which one). Verschleierte Irreligiosität is a re-recording of Veiled Irreligion off the debut so it's an easy way to compare the quality of the releases. Unfortunately, there's no real comparison as the original version is far superior despite the step up in production values. Dictus Te Necare could easily have been another 4 and half stars type album but instead, I'm going to give it a 3 and go in hunt of their next album which thankfully has another new vocalist. Let's hope they didn't pick this one out of the gutter.