The publication by the trve-kvlt vndergrovnd label Dominance of Darkness from the debut album of the ultra-intransigent German solo project Elendigreporting only to the corpulent Zwiespalt who takes care of everything, including production (in his cutely named recording studios Fuck Off ProductionI’ll let you imagine the guy… yet without face painting in my opinion you would mistake him for the typical chubby German with beer-and-sausages), allow me a small digression which I hope you’ll forgive me.
Although I listen to music of all genres, I have practically lived on black metal for no less than 33 years (not counting the previous thrash/death/brutal militancy). The more rotten, putrid, mephitic, unpleasant, disturbing, controversial etc, the better it is for me: it is my lifeblood and I tend to not care if the project is Nazi, communist, pedophile, satirical, all-femalerape women and all the rest, because for me they are just beaten. It’s music, it’s entertainment and it’s worth everythingif there was a group with members dressed as Sbirulino that produced a record for me like Pure Holocaust do you think I would care? At all. What matters is the music, that’s it.
I have been writing reviews on these pages since the end of 2020, I have brought to your attention – I hope you will appreciate it – about two hundred records, perhaps more, and I have always specified that I talk about metal extreme. Then there are different degrees of extremism, the Old Corpse Rd they are extremes in less strength than people extreme-what-can-not-be-more-extreme like him Ar’lyxkq’wrbut they are still extreme, and, if in the preview of the page we read that the article was written by Griffar, there is no probability that they are talking about anything other than music inside extreme. If you prefer Rondò Veneziano, that’s your business (oh, by the way I still have some of their old original cassettes, First Lights on the Lagoon And Symphony for a Farewell they are timeless songs) and just don’t read my articles. I’m precise Always that I’m talking about material that you may not like, to the point of disgust or repulsion. It’s normal and I’m certainly not offended if you say that a record that I consider valid disgusts you, de gustibus. If you do, however, try to justify it without making speeches like a disadvantaged child, please. Even no comments are fine, in fact: better.
All of the above to introduce the music of our non-friend, eager to tell you to fuck off at every turn and to despise you in his most intimate feelings every time you have the displeasure of meeting him, which can be seen from various titles of his songs and from the his intransigent image without half measures. His is a crude, primordial, disgustingly (intended as a compliment) retro black metal, with a very punk attitude as they used to do in the past, at the dawn of the whole thing. In his discography he has three demos released in 2021: Human Waste, Gedankenholocaust And Krähenschlag: Anti Fucking Norm, all in a limited edition box; then a split with fellow countrymen Graul, also released in cassette edition wooden box containing trinkets such as worms and black candles in the package (I think sold-out in 15 seconds, people go crazy for this nonsense and I don’t think it’s just for collecting, most of them are pinball machines who hope to resell it to the tuna at ten times the original price), and finally this debut Kraft durch Kälte which undauntedly offers pure, underground, rough, ungainly, extremely violent black metal, without any concession, with rare less destructive moments in which it even allows some space for feeble and emaciated melodies that almost never have a long life. Or the classic slow a-la Burzum (one for all: Wehklagen) reviewed from a German perspective as many have done before him, always with more than appreciable results. Regnum, Sterbend, Anti, Nyktalgia, people like that. He doesn’t look out of place at all next to the latter, but don’t think you’ll find something new: this is material for those who adored the old demos of unlikely groups who rarely left the cellar level, people who played with the passion and fury of the fifteen/ sixteen years old not having the fortune of possessing Satyr’s talent, Samoth and so on. Genuine, simple, perhaps even naive stuff, but the charge that these crude pieces put on you, all written following an almost improvised approach that increases their putridity, is unparalleled and absolutely timeless. It’s clear that it’s not easy listening music that plays in the background at a party or while you watch the Champions League, you have to be prepared and above all have the head to listen to Elendig, otherwise there’s always Rondò Veneziano….
As mentioned, the album is released by Dominance of Darkness records, currently available in a neat box set containing three CDs in slimcase of cardboard: the first is the album itself, the second the print of the first two demos and the third rare live material and songs sketched out without completing them, as well as stickers and an A5 insert in which you will find some kind and helpful lyrics towards the next one. 99 copies were printed. (Griffar)
