EP Review: Thanatomania "Kalamität" (Sol Records/Deviant Records) by Corban Skipwith

Band: Thanatomania

Location: Berlin

Country: Germany

Genre: Black metal

EP: Kalamität

Format: Digital album, digipak CD (limited to 300 copies)

Label: Sol Records/Deviant Records

Release date: December 30, 2021

Guess what whanau, it’s another EP review time, the work load never ends and today we will be travelling all the way to Germany for this four piece set list simplistically titled I-IV.

This is credited as being a ‘Black Metal’ album and although it definitely is that, this band does something interesting with the sub-genre by adding in various element of ‘Folk’ or ‘Ambience’ like instrumental passages in all the songs, the most obvious of these can be found in track ‘II’ and ‘IV’ where each track is under two minutes of length and just serve as intermediate overtures to help guide the EP through the more in depth and structured first and third songs.

I love what those passages do for the EP, it helps give it some extra sound and aesthetic that normally wouldn’t be found on your average ‘Meat and Potatoes’ style ‘Black Metal’ record so I love that aspect a lot.

As I mentioned above this is for all other intensive purposes a ‘Black Metal’ experience you have those growling, satanic like vocal performances which give off that extremely dark and harrowing feeling when hearing them.

You have those heavy guitar patterns riffs combing with those gargantuan drum tracks that just shake the songs to their very core and leave the listener even more so.

I think for such a short EP this album has a lot going for it in terms of creativity, vibe, sonic aesthetic and production. It doesn’t try to sound more ‘polished’ then it is and it’s not trying to be anything more than a tad more fancy edition of a brutal ‘Black Metal’ record and I absolutely love the direction they were going!

Another short and savory EP review for you all, link below if you’re a fan of ‘Black Metal’ you know what to do! Share Share Share!! –Corban Skipwith

Lineup:

M.S.: Guitars, bass, vocals

A.K.: Bass

B.L.: Drums

Track list:

1. I

2. II

3. III

4. IV