Ter Ziele – Emobdiment Of Death
Ter Ziele – Emobdiment Of Death
Tartarus Records
28/02/2025
Review by Oli Gonzalez
6.5/10
Having formed in late 2020, Ter Ziele are now on the verge of releasing their debut album via Tarturus Records. Promising to be a blend of post-black metal and doom seems intriguing and is everything I look for in extreme music! The band seem to be making a name for themselves in their home country of The Netherlands, having bagged support slots at Roadburn, Soulcrusher, and Into The Grave. As such, it’ll be interesting to see what their spin on this genre is and what makes them stand out.
My first thoughts. This cinematic style opening is austere, intimidating, and sets the atmosphere perfectly, setting you right up in the mood to face your impending doom! Then the guitars come in. Similarly bleak and grotesquely dark, you feel as though a maelstrom is beginning to form and you’re about to slowly get dragged into it. The dual vocal attack of higher pitch primitive wails of agony combined with the dirty low end gutturals add to this sense of despair. Could the compositional approach be varied a little though?
After a sonic pounding of the ear drums, it’s time for more austere and atmospheric vibes, led by the cleaner relatively more aesthetic guitars in ‘Of Noumenon Reality’, juxtaposed nicely with the angst vocal attack. Then the rest of the band and distorted guitars join the fold. I wanted this to be a lot more crushing and overwhelming in its attack and production though, hinting at something lacking in the studio and some extra homework needed.
With the vocals also, whilst I was purring with admiration at the start, eventually I started to feel a sense of despair later on. Despair because I couldn’t connect with the lyrics at all. Which is ultimately pointless as they could be singing a nursery rhyme or reciting epic poetry but if the diction and clarity is lacking then it starts to come across as a bit of an audial mess.
The pacing of the album is decent, but could certainly be better. Whilst there’s some mixing up of cleaner calmer passages with the heavier sections, overall it does come across as a little stale and repetitive. The near 12 minute closer feels like an effort to get through, and it shouldn’t be. The album as a whole feels like an ambitious effort but is still undercooked and in need of extra time to take form.
TRACKLISTING:
01. As Long As I Breathe
02. The Separation Of Body And Soul
03. Of Noumenon Reality
04. This Mortal Coil
05. As Long As I Breathe, I Am To Suffer
LINKS:
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