Country of origin:
Switzerland
Location:
N/A
Status:
Active
Formed in:
2004
Genre:
Black Metal/Ambient
Lyrical themes:
Insanity, Occultism
Current label:
Anti-Earth-Campaign
Years active:
2004-present
==========================
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Totgeburt - "Asche unter meiner Haut"
Confused Swiss Black Metal. - 60%
Perplexed_Sjel, July 7th, 2009
From the picture of the bands only member, and the vocals themselves, one could be forgiven for thinking this was a dedication to the odd funeral doom band from America, Senthil. Now, when I initially heard Senthil, I wasn’t as displeased as I was expecting to be. The idea that the vocalist chokes himself with chains as he’s singing his demented heart out is odd, by anyone other than his standards. Despite this, and my apprehension at the thought of this strange concoction, I didn’t think Senthil were all that bad. In fact, the eerie atmosphere was pleasing and one of the most vicious that I have personally encountered within the tortured sub-genre of funeral doom - and that’s one hell of a statement! The vocal portrayal from Totgeburt, a Swiss ambient black metal band is much the same. T, the bands only member, is the embodiment of evil when he portrays the lyrical themes of insanity and occultism with his distant screams, not rasps. In terms of Totgeburt, there is a fine line between ambient black metal and funeral doom as this seems to mesh the two together in an odd fashion. Switzerland has an odd reputation when it comes to metal. I suppose the only reason I look towards this area of the world for black metal is because of Darkspace - the band with probably the biggest cult status in the black metal world (Paysage D’Hiver are also worth mentioning). This scene and this genre of ambient black metal however, is blighted by an incessant amount of tribute bands and untalented wonders.
When it comes to the sub-genre that is ambient black metal there is, once again, a fine line between good and evil, positive and negative and so on. A lot of the bands that fall into this genre are merely pretenders to the throne and are trying to be something that they’re clearly not. Thankfully, Totgeburt deserve their place within this eerie world of anger and pain, mixed in with an insanity that seems so apt its unreal. The lyrical themes are worth more here than is normal for black metal bands because the instrumentation and the vocal portrayal truly do give a feeling of growing insanity in the claustrophobic feel that the atmospherics hand down to us on a silver platter. Songs like ‘Überall Schlangen’ live up to the expectations that typical funeral doom songs deliver on the majority of occasions. That bleak, cold and distant sound that surrounds us, encasing us in an atmospheric place of unrest, where the souls of the damned wander eternally because they have no place in heaven, hell or even purgatory. This solemn place is one that impacts on the surface, but like your average Halloween night out as an innocent child, though the costumes may appear realistic at first, once you pull away the mask, a regular façade is left and our fear is washed away by a sense of security.
Much the same can be said about the debut by Totgeburt, ‘Asche unter meiner Haut’ it delivers us from good and presents us to evil by taking us away from normal everyday society and placing us in a habitat that we’re not accustomed to - one with eerie guitars that echo beyond the realms of humanity and that stir the living dead from their graves and onto the streets, one with a style of vocals that acts like incantations, calling and singing to the evil that tries to possess our pure souls with the so-called delights of the devil - these attributes make Totgeburt appear almost scary on the surface of things, but once you peel away that thin mask, the results are far less spectacular than is initially thought. It would be fair to say that this is no ordinary ambient piece, though it does rely far too heavily on the ambiance to carry over the insanity of the lyrics and vocal portrayal. Songs like ‘Alea Iacta Est’, with its echoing vocals that make us think the vocalist is slowly sinking into the ground, being consumed and sucked into the pits of hell and its spiralling guitar effects that act as the crumbling ground beneath his feet, are prime examples of what Totgeburt try to achieve with their unorthodox style of mixing black with funeral and then attempting a Disembowelment-like change in tempo, increasing the speed with the percussion which fires down on us with its barrage of double bass and crashing cymbals (and, at times, can remind me of the old Summoning style of drumming).
The musicianship is worth praising, but simply because this is incredibly different from most other bands I have heard within this field - giving it a special feeling of innovation, though it may be too complex for its own good. That isn’t to say that the instrumentation is especially technical because it isn’t, but it does sway from genre to genre far too much, in short spaces of time, over long songs. This oddity is complex because of such a fact - its just so odd that it confuses and toils with my emotions, leading me to ask questions about the bands direction and why exactly the sound was constructed in the way that it is. Given the fact that it relies so heavily of ambiance of several varying kinds, and weird effects that are seemingly meant to have a long-lasting haunting affect, Totgeburt come across as a confused entity, more so than anything else. it’s a shame because there is talent here to play with. T isn’t a mastermind, but he has vision and with his expansive style, he could have been able to pull off a major upset by creating one of the most underrated ambient/blackened funeral records of the modern era.
Instead, his fascinating, but overly surreal depiction of insanity and occultism is too draining to be considered a worthwhile pursuit and will never be a record I will listen to one numerous occasions, over and over again and most certainly never a repeated listen. There is a feeling that the odd changes in tempo, the varying influences from vastly different genres and sub-genres is actually meant to sound this way because, after all, the band is meant to be portraying what insanity would sound like if it were in the form of a musical expression. There is no doubting that Totgeburt have achieved their goals if that is the case but, again, the problem is that the direction is unclear. The ambiance is definitely there, its clear for all to see, but the demented nature of this record strips it down from an accessible record to an inaccessible record with lost potential. I appreciate this record for what it is, its just a shame it isn’t anything more than just another obscure, demented, but overall lacklustre record with the most confusing sound in the world. Again, I respect the intentions, but I judge the results harshly because this genre has numerous flaws, one’s that need to be exposed to stop people from venturing into the wrongs directions and getting the wrong impression about the genre as a whole. Average.
/1 
发表于 2020-1-11 15:34:43
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