Bethlehem
Sardonischer Untergang Im Zeichen Irreligiöser Darbietung

THE REVIEW

There are many musical genres that are actually true philosophies. Sometimes, however, this boundary is crossed, leading to talking about "lifestyles"; according to Jürgen Bartsch, "Dark metal" fits into this second category in an exemplary manner. After losing a plethora of friends and loved ones, he intended to form a group with and for people submerged in the sticky darkness of pain. This is why the Bethlehem exude this desire for expression, this need for catharsis in line with Aristotle's homeopathic theory, fulfilled through a musical proposition capable of bringing relief to the few fragments of soul that remain.

"Sardonischer Untergang Im Zeichen Irreligiöser Darbietung" (whose initials, coincidentally, form the acrostic S.U.I.Z.I.D.) is the album where these principles find their most successful and profound application; the masterpiece of the group that, along with a few others, kicked off the German Depressive Black tradition. When the purest Black is not contaminated by Doom, it is nevertheless continuously fragmented by the dark light of a piano, desolate laments, cries, distant bell tolls, or sinister rustles: all elements that constitute the main framework of canonical Depressive. Although there may be sporadic anomalies (especially a "Nexus" almost Industrial in flavor), the entire work lies under the shadow of an atmosphere as desperate as it is unified, sometimes less intensified, sometimes more (as in the long spoken monologue by Cathrin Campen at the beginning of "Teufelverrückt Gottdreizehn," perhaps the only slightly tedious element of the album, even if of undeniable suggestiveness).

A notable novelty is the voice of Marco Kehren, who had already met and worked with Bartsch in Deinonychus (also a "Dark metal" group): if the voice of Rainer Landfermann, lent to the previous "Dictius Te Necare", can be defined as "murderous," given the extreme peaks it reaches, Kehren's is instead "suicidal." It shifts from screams most faithful to the tradition to true and proper furious whimpers, making the whole even more heartbreaking and oppressive.

"S.U.I.Z.I.D." is a classic of avant-garde Metal (for those times: thirteen years have now passed) to know and rediscover, excellent in demonstrating how a desperate madman and his companions can contribute to giving extreme Metal a turn and even a breath of fresh, rather icy air. An intellectual and enigmatic work, yet it manages the magic of squeezing our discomforts and anxieties to give us new energy. At least until, like Cobain, we have lost the "comfort in being sad."