Well I’m a bit confounded about all this and the information provided on this band inviting us to their ‘Days Of Darkness’. Yes, language wise everything is in German but we are told they were founded in London. Fair enough and although only emerging in 2024 they have released an EP and a slew of seven singles prior to this self-released debut album. It’s when I look for more info about the band members that things get a little confusing. There is no official Facebook or home page for the project and the normally reliable Metal Archives lists a Greek musician Jim Kakes, also of Mindthreat as being responsible for everything here, which is curious. The press blurb talks about the musical mastermind being Der Abt, are they one and the same? The album also came with some press photos of members apparently playing live, a couple are cloaked, the only one not, who is singing looks like it could be a lady but it’s hard to tell. There are definitely no female vocals on the album. See my confusion? It’s all rather odd.
Musically this is easier to fathom being a blend of blackness and medieval sounding folk metal. If you wanted to think of the sort of groups that play the recently announced yearly Paganfest you would be in the right drinking park with horns raised aloft. Themes are ambiguous but reflect a tough time had by Der Abt along with alluding to the apocalypse and the end of the world (an old chestnut that seems to be dogging me review wise of late). Track titles reference everything from ‘Deliverance,’ to ‘Silent Death’ and ‘The Power Of Invulnerability’ in line with this perhaps.
Opening cut ‘Die Letzten Tage der Zeit’ goes from frolic, rousing folk motifs which get straight in the head to driving blackened swaggers. We are introduced to the lead vocals which are trollish, gabbled growls and don’t deviate much from this course for the duration of the album. I also found the snare high hits a bit intrusive and over-used, not always seemingly in time with the rest of what is going on. Still the stein-spilling schlager style is enough to have people giddily slipping around on the dance floor before the keyboard piano outro restores a brief passage of calm. Between bouts of traditional instruments such as bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, medieval recorders, flutes, and percussion, there is a definite slant towards some quite seething black metal which is adopted and more fully-realised on the driving ‘Alles ist Nichts.’ Compared to this, one of a couple of the album’s instrumental tracks ‘Symphonie des Untergangs’ is whimsical before going to “doomy” orchestral fantasy land.
I found the shorter numbers, of which there are quite a few around the mid-section of the album to be more impactful and catchy than the couple of longer ones which frankly lose the oomph factor and over-extend themselves a bit too much. The 9-minute plus title track is a case in point, going nowhere fast and frankly with its cast and melody on the pessimistic side descending into a bit of a drudge. Perhaps I am being over-critical, parts of the album have a spark about them but others are equally on the drab side towards conclusion and I get the impression this is a band starting out and finding themselves, yet to properly fit in anywhere.
I did go looking to see if they have ever actually played live and forgive me if I am wrong but found no actual evidence. Zeit der Dunkelheit are going to either have to find a good range of players for this or rely on backing tapes which could hamper them in this respect. Although the likes of Paganfest is far in the future I can see them as future contenders for Warhorns as genre wise they are the sort of band with plenty of potential. I would direct you towards the album on Bandcamp but at the time of writing it is just the singles up there, another slightly odd marketing move which hopefully will be rectified shortly. Early days yet but I have to say the group need to lose the ambiguity, build their presence and come out of the shadows a bit more if they are, as they say “ready to take over the world”.
(6.5/10 Pete Woods)
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