One of the defining traits of Endstille’s style was undoubtedly Iblis’ trademark shriek, which was almost armour-piercing at its harshest, and to lose that was pretty unfortunate, but as it turns out, certainly not disastrous.
With Zingultus, also of the more underground entity, Graupel and ex Nagelfar (the German one!!), Endstille have acquired someone with a certain degree of range, which was essentially missing from their previous albums. Not that that was a bad thing as such, as Iblis’ vocal style suited Endstille perfectly, but there’s no harm in experimenting a bit vocally is there!? They may as well add a string to their bow if it’s available.
‘Amomie’ opens in very typical style, a nice, dreary riff backed with a rapid snare attack, which lapses suddenly into silence and unexpectedly, Zingultus whispers “anomie.” The dreariness then returns under a barrage of screams and blasts and straight away one’s thinking ‘they’ve never done that before, have they?’ It can’t be denied that his voice does fit pretty snugly into their miserable, ugly sound, albeit it’s rarely as piercing as the former vocalist. When an altogether heavier, more Deathly section approaches however, Zingultus comes into his own, adopting more of a growl with something of a strained cry infused and it works very well indeed.
As far as titles go, this album’s a little bit hit and miss. I’ll get to the miss later on, but ‘The Deepest Place on Earth’ and ‘When Kathaaria Falls’ immediately suggest the requisite Endstille atmosphere. The former has a fairly slow start, propelled by Mayhemic Destructor’s rapid feet, and an unorthodox succession of group chants during the chorus. The final half’s strangely tuneful initial riff-blast flies straight into one of those almost singly chorded mechanical monotone monsters, which guitarist Wachtfels is especially skilled at honing from nowhere.
‘When Kathaaria Falls’ has more than a ring of 2005’s ‘Navigator’ about it, although it also indulges in some experimental twangs which bring a strange combination of Burzum and modern Opeth to mind. In fact, the rather cheesily titled ‘Satanarchie’ (that was the miss I mentioned earlier) shows these interesting new flourishes off even more proudly.
If those experimental touches are a bit too radical (not at all!) for any old school Endstille followers, then ‘World Aflame’ and ‘Wrecked’ should be suitable antidotes to remove any lingering ideas of progression. ‘Wrecked’ in particular has some great archetypal melancholic riffing.
I can’t say this is going to be my favourite album in their discography, but I definitely approve of their efforts to develop their miserable, ugly sound further and have no doubt that their change in screamers has helped accomplish this. A very decent effort!
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