SAMMATH "Dodengang" (Folter) SCORE: 86/100

What we have here is pretty basic black metal, at least from the indication
of the first few tracks. Of course track 1 'To Hell' is an instrumental, though
a pretty dark one at that, so we're left with 7 actual songs. The blackened
vocals are quite sick, though this reviewer thinks that the vocals should
have been brought into the forefront more. Production wise, this isn't the
clearest of plastic meshing, but it does the job adequately enough so that it doesn't
sound like it was recorded in a trash can. It's pretty much guitar, bass,
vocals, drums and that's it, so you old school black metal fanatics have
something to cheer about. However, once you start delving deep into the rest
of the tracks, some surprisingly skilled guitar leads rear their ugly heads.
This CD definitely captures a cold and dark atmosphere, made all the more
ingenious by the extremely fast and high ended lead riffing. And from the second track
('Ravager') on, there is a great deal of variety in the tempos and even the
structures on this album. Still though, for mostly fast paced black metal, I
think most would agree that an 8 minute song length (as witnessed on the
title track) is a bit much for fast paced black metal. Fortunately, some war
sounds thrown in midway serve to break up the track, which at times seems like two
seperate songs. A few of the tracks do have a tendency to drag a bit, like
on 'Oblivion,' there's too much speed riffing and not nearly enough variety
near the end of the song, but this song does boast some dark, almost acoustic
like leads. And the almost doom metal pace ending out 'Merciless' (which also
ends the CD) was quite a shock as well. I didn't care much for some of the death
metal styled vocals which served as backup to the main screeching blackened
vocals, though I had kinda hoped it would bring what's already there out
into the forefront more. Solo bass guitar rumblings (with a dirty and sick
processed feel, remember sick is GOOD!) prove that there's more going on to the
percussion section than the overtly intense drumming! Speaking of the
drumming, quite varied are the drum riffs from tune to tune, and it's rather obvious
to me that this drummer is not only skilled, but knows how to write interesting
and diverse percussion material. Sometimes this CD will lose you for a bit,
but the guitar lead riffs are downright interesting, and the eerie and haunting
feeling is offset by some damn creative musicianship. Your attention might
wander at times, but for oldschool styled black metal, this is well played.
Contact: Folter Records.