Another master work from a skilled craftsman and intuitive musician…
Review by Jason Guest
Release date: 16 June 2015
Total Negation’s 2013 release, Zur späten Stunde | Zeiträume, was an impressive work. Comprised of two conceptually-linked EPs, it fused black metal with the avant-garde to explore and explode the bounds between reality and dream. What for some would be no more than a collection of seemingly disparate entities thrown together into sound, Wiedergaenger pulled it off with aplomb. Two years later and Wiedergaenger has once delivered a dark and defiant wonder: Zeitzeuge.
Like its predecessor, the black metal aspects of TN’s sound are firmly in place. Discordant chords clash with fiery riffs and dissonant arpeggios, the drums rumble and rage in the nether regions, the vocals are simultaneously tormented and scathing, and the atmospherics bear the weight of both depressive and pure black metal. And like its predecessor, Zeitzeuge sees Wiedergaenger pushing them all into new extremes, the hypnotizingly intense repetition of select passages giving the tracks time to breathe and develop before they move on into progressively penetrating atmospherics and textures. This album is a world of its own, one that with every stroke Wiedergaenger’s sole intention is to tear asunder any expectation or any sign of hope. Dejected, depressed, dissonant and destructive, Zeitzeuge is another master work from a skilled craftsman and intuitive musician.
8 out of 10
Track Listing:
- Betrachter
- Fluechtling
- Augenzeuge
- Kronzeuge
- Heimkehrer
- Zeitzeuge
