Bethlehem
Dictius Te Necare

In 1996 the second LP by Bethlehem, "Dictius Te Necare," was released; the Germans have become an institution in the local Metal scene: everyone has taken something from them, regardless of their musical style, whether it be Black, Doom, or Death; the success of their offering is mainly based on the originality of their stylistic approach, a bastard hybrid of Thrash sounds, slowdowns at the Doom limit, and hieratic explosions bordering on Black, creating a sound so spontaneous and particular that it heavily influenced the future of Depressive Black metal.

For years, this "Dictius Te Necare" would remain one of the most extreme works in the metal sphere, both a comparison and a model for any group wishing to make psychological violence their trademark; even though perhaps the album is not the group's masterpiece, it is the one that best represents the Germans' potential, who in this work are less than ever tied to the classic and bloated riffing of 90s Doom-Death.

DTN is a work both delicate and thunderous, "refined" and "vulgar": whirlwind accelerations and seismic shocks coexist with sepulchral loops and gigantic sections, intimate arpeggios at the ambient limit make their way among testosterone outbursts typical of a certain boorishness from European Thrash. All this is mixed with a compositional talent unknown to the majority of contemporary acts (it's 1996, and the canonical Black and Death are already on the brink of crisis).
That sense of (self)destruction inherent in the lyrics is transferred not only into the songs but also and deeply into the very spirit of the band, which seems to embroider intricate riffs only to destroy them under the weight of vocals that are like a bucket of paint on a Botticellian fresco. The group and Landfermann seem like two entities in eternal quarrel: while the former refines its technical skills, composing its best parts in this album, the latter seems to want to shatter this unity by deconstructing his vocal lines, destabilizing the "Metal" atmosphere sought with such conviction by the other members: the songs become the reflection of a fragmented soul.

In DTN there is (almost entirely) no contact with the European underground, especially the metallic one (the comparisons, at least on a lyric level, are to be found in the New Wave/Dark Wave scene): the lyrics, which in the previous Dark Metal had explored "Satanisms" related to Black, abandon any semblance of naturalism, of sensibility, lingering on exploring that terrifying progeny of nightmares that populate the empty space between the knife and one's veins: fears, doubts, and reluctances are the demons that fight in the mind of man, and the deep and disturbing scenarios of Jurgen Bartsch (lyricist and bassist) paint them in a symbolic, allusive key.
Among noir flashes and guitar accelerations (perhaps Dark Metal is the most realistic definition of the group's style) lies that demon of Rainer Landfermann, interpreter of Bartsch's tormented inner universe. His vocal extremism will only be matched later by Nattramn, of Silencer, in the legendary "Death Pierce Me".

Attempting to interpret an album like this by adhering to the rules of "bel canto" would be madness: Linderman realizes that only by deconstructing and mortifying the style can he express that swarming world of nightmares that everyone carries within themselves, in their subconscious: in short, art passes through self-destruction.
Screams, delirium, and sobs become the only expressive mode left to the human being abandoned to themselves, a victim of their own mind: there is also room for screams and growl parts, but the theatricality dominates every fragment of the vocal interpretation, making Linderman seem like a puppet through which a greater reality makes its voice heard.

I abstain from judgment, given the uniqueness of the work and the absolute originality of the group; I certainly invite you to give a listen to an album that, for better or worse, has helped create the history of the concept of "extreme," giving new vigor and creating new directions.