By Rich Hobson
Sat somewhere between the boundaries of black metal and classic death metal, DunkelNacht are testament to the ever-shrinking borders between extreme metal subgenres on their third record ‘Empires of Mediocracy’. Not since the ‘80s has the spectrum of extreme been such a fluid beast, bands finally realising that existing purely in one subgenre invites a sense of laziness which ultimately grinds all but the very best into formless gruel. Such formlessness doesn’t befit a band like DunkelNacht, the band instead cherry-picking the very best elements of both black and death metal to create something which can gladly cater to both camps.
In this way, ‘Empires of Mediocracy’ delivers by the bucket – whether it be the ambitious song writing chops that include mini-symphonic swells in intro ‘Relentless Compendium’, the inclusion of gut-pummeling double-bass on ‘Servants’ or straight-up icy blasts of classic black metal on ‘Amongst The Remnants of Liberty’. Each song offers a veritable buffet of extreme metal bombast, the styles switching and interchanging in such a way that it becomes difficult to pin down exactly what DunkelNacht are – a black metal band? Blackened death metal? Experimental extreme metal? All of the above, maybe.
One thing’s for sure, the band aren’t going by any half measures, and ‘Empire of Mediocrity’’s greatest parts come from the sheer scope of instrumentation employed across the record. Whether it be in the none-more-imperious tones of ‘Eerie Horrendous Obsession’ or the liberal inclusion of symphonic elements to create an almost Universal Pictures Horror atmos on ‘Amongst The Remnants of Liberty’, you’ll find ambition in no short supply across this record, each instrument wailing and singing out in ways that owe more to the high fidelity audio of death metal than to black metal’s ‘the muddier the better’ traditions.
Even with symphonic elements, there’s no shying away from the fact that DunkelNacht feel like a band whose feet are firmly planted in the nastiest sides of the underground. Where so much of Europe (and on a more local scale, France/the Netherlands) are producing bands who push the forms of extreme metal into mainstream spaces, DunkelNacht are pure, unabashed heaviness. Stick on the album’s title track and you are greeted with a nausea-inducing assault of furious sound, built around demonic sounds and non-stop drum barrages, the track is exemplar of the unabashed, unrelenting nature of what DunkelNacht do.
‘Empires of Mediocracy’ is the sound of a band on fire, turning their ambitions into something pure and unassailable. Through sheer cunning DunkelNacht have crafted a record which traverses a number of extreme metal styles whilst never straying too far from the boundaries of black or death metal, indulging in symphonic tendencies more as an additional colour on the palette rather than as something to be defined by. In a world where symphonic black metal is only just finding its feet, DunkelNacht have stumbled upon a synthesis which preserves each individual element of the mix. By doing so, they mark themselves as one of black metal’s most effortlessly canny bands, crafting an expansive sonic journey that will no doubt delight the ears of every extreme metal fan it reaches.
- ‘Empires of Mediocracy’ is released on 28 February. You can get your copy HERE.
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