Not much to go on here, but the statement “for fans of Fluisteraars” was for me a draw. That at least set me up to expect some atmospheric black metal from Netherlands.
The opening piece of creeping nastiness is pure venom, which is handy as “Venijn” (Venom) is its title. Deeply and dingily it progresses. Echoing screams adds to the fearful atmosphere. A voice cries out helplessly in the background. The merciless riff goes on before eventually the lid comes off and an explosion of drums, vocals and general sounds pierce the putrid air. “Storm” also lives up to its title. It’s vicious, vibrant and somewhere between thrash metal and a modern Norwegian black metal style. It didn’t hold a great of subtlety for me but it certainly spreads its evil way. The albums develops, if that’s the right word, with the fiery “Geboren”. The hissing vocals add flavour to the exhilarating tune. It’s a straight-line relentless assault, although there is melody in the guitar line if you look and listen. Fast and furious, “Geboren” is also exciting. From this we pass through the momentary hypnotic gloom of “Los”, we return to the fiery energy of the title song. Bizarre and even grotesque in its chorus, it develops into another forward-thrusting piece of metal darkness, eventually subsiding into a quiet and sinister passage of a post-metal nature.
It’s hard not to be dragged into the excitement of these tracks, and in particular “Beboren” and the title song “Balans”. Balance indeed is what we do have here as Dinbethes tread a path between fast, hard and exciting black metal and more menacing, atmospheric and downright unusual moments. It’s fairly short at 34 minutes but there’s plenty here of interest.
(8/10 Andrew Doherty)
19/06/2022 at 8:01 pm
“Not much to go on here”
J. is also involved in Shagor who made some waves in the black metal underground a few years ago.
The band is part of the Swarte Yssel collective that also feature (next to Shagor and Dinbethes) Ossaert and Weerzin. A new band called Suol will enter the circle as well.