Silencer
Death - Pierce Me

Leere, Steve Wolz, Nattramn. Three Swedes. A multi-instrumentalist, a drummer, and a mentally ill person. This time it’s not a figure of speech, it’s not about the usual praises of someone who has heard an unusual CD. Nattramn (his real name is unknown) is truly someone from a mental health center, so much so that Silencer, born in 1995, disbanded due to his permanent internment in a psychiatric hospital. Causes: schizophrenia, severe self-harm. Now he seems to have a solo industrial/drone project
(Diagnose: Lebensgefahr). Leere (ex-Shining), another pseudonym, plays guitars, bass, and keyboards. Steve Wolz is a session drummer (Deinonychus, Bethlehem...). This release from 2001 is the trio's only work.

The genre is Depressive Black Metal, there's no mistake, there are no middle grounds. Tracks exhausting for their length but not for complexity, despite the undeniable technical prowess of the members. The title track and first demo, "Death-Pierce Me" slowly accompanies with its initial arpeggio into the maze-like and inescapable suicidal lyrics of Nattramn. His voice doesn’t exist, only the most excruciating and sharp screams a human can emit. Forget Burzum, there's no repetitiveness or logical thread. Forget Kvarforth, no breath is spared. Here we are at the limits of endurance. You can hear the vocal cords being strained. Then crying, coughing, retching, hysterical screams... And surrounding them, the massive and ruthless riffs that enhance the tragic nature of the vocals, which would otherwise seem ridiculous alone. A powerful and foregrounded drum. "Sterile Nails And Thunderbowel" begins slowly and is calculated to penetrate like a knife: first the tip, then the blade spreading as it sinks in. The development of sounds and riffs is incredibly rich in sudden tempo changes and leaves space for Leere’s boundless creativity. Nattramn showcases screaming and growling yet never seems focused on the music. And amid a pause, he demonstrates his ability to convey the actual feeling that conditions his life: pain.

The best of the album for creativity, sound exploration, almost dissociated from black metal for this reason. Then a new beginning: bass and drums chasing each other at impressive speeds to lead into "Taklamakan." Tremolos and overdubbed arpeggios surrounded by overwhelming screams. The quality of the overlays is excellent, and the studio work is far from the true black metal standards. The sound is very clean. After the halfway point of the CD, we find another excessively long alienation: "The Slow Kill In The Cold." A keyboard chord slowly projects into the hypothermia of this another trial of suffering.

Once again, Leere and Steve Wolz show their fertile ability to reshape the same sequence of chords in as many ways as possible. To conclude this work, "I Shall Lead, You Shall Follow" extinguishes any smile still possible for those who found the vocals ridiculous. The emotional work is meticulously crafted, and here we truly talk about depressed metal, with huge moments of despair alternating with pure, raw hysteria. This reaches its peak in the fusion between acoustic arpeggio and tremolo riff. Another emotional progression that plunges into abysses of terror, echoes of remorse, and fibrillating tempos. The sixth track, "Feeble Are You-Sons Of Sion" is designed as if it wants to be a reverse intro, an extremely melancholic piano saluting every rational view of what surrounds us.

Personally, I admire the work, even though I don't consider it among the best ever executed. Never have I felt despair and the desire to suffer as violently real as with this record.