Todesstoss
Beutetrieb Schwarzer Witwen

In a time like this when the Depressive Black scene is establishing itself like never before, I believe it's necessary to discern which artists truly deserve consideration, keeping in mind that when a musical phenomenon explodes, there are many insubstantial bands that follow the trend of the moment to garner some fame. Besides the pioneering bands of the aforementioned genre, like Xasthur, Shining, or our own Forgotten Tomb, or the forerunners like Manes, Burzum, Strid, or the never too praised Bethlehem, a band that is certainly gaining attention in the underground scene is Todesstoss, a one-man band from the German lands, which released this EP in 2005 with a duration of just over a quarter of an hour for AAP.

From the first chords, one is struck by the peculiarity of the production: cold and alien guitars, with rotten sounds but with something synthetic, an extremely minimal drum machine marking almost industrial martial rhythms, but what emerges most from such unhealthy production are the vocals—whimpers, mutterings, anguished and excessively distressing screams. The riffs are true paranoid monuments erected for the worship and subsequent sublimation of pure psychopathy—sparse, repetitive, disturbing, and obsessive.

The title track, placed at the opening, is a dark hallucinatory march towards madness, a swirling crescendo of genuine mental illness, a journey through the most negative feelings of human experience—pain, anguish, paranoia, suicidal frenzy, panic. Martin Lang, the factotum of this project, sets aside the black reminiscences of works like "Jenseitsluge" to incorporate Doom elements, and the result is a work that can bring to mind milestones of pain set to music like "Dictius Te Necare" by Bethlehem or "Death, Pierce Me" by Silencer of Nattram. The second track, "D., Das Weisse Ross" is completely instrumental, where guitar riffs and dark noises overlap, creating more relaxed patterns than the previous song; despite the lack of competition between the two compositions in terms of quality, the second remains a track not to discard. Another particularity of the record is the lyrics, literary fragments taken from Philipp Ficke's poem "Die Schwartzen Witwen", written and recited in German, hence not accessible to everyone, or rather, certainly beyond my reach.

In conclusion, this is an EP that will surely make (or rather, unmake, considering the significant amount of negativity that emanates from listening) all lovers of the sickest and most insane Depressive happy, recommended to all those who despair for the lack of acts capable of reaching the heights of the likes of Bethlehem or Silencer: now this void is filled by the palpable madness and genuine insanity of this man, Martin Lang, who composes a work of the highest emotional level. Enjoy listening.