Introduction

Formed in the United Kingdom, Thede is a one-off project born of a love for experimental black metal and a desire to explore the harmonic and aesthetic possibilities of this music.

Whet the Keen Axes 

Tracklist:

1. Mayn
2. Yrre
3. Gefeoht 
4. Wuldor
5. Rūst I
6. Rūst II
7. Slyme
8. Anweald
9. Ġewinn
10. Wōdnes
11. Sorwe
12. Thede

The album starts by placing you where it wants with Mayn, and halfway through the song, it slams you into the wall, and keeps you there with Yrre, a very short song that keeps the aggression going. As experimental as it is, both songs are pretty cohesive, even the pure chaotic bits on Yrre are purposeful.

Then Gefeoth starts, a song that has some pretty extreme drumming mixed with some traditional black metal riffs, lots of aggression that gets broken by the next song, Wuldor; a slower tempo song and one of the longest ones on the album too, clocking almost six minutes; and it really is an interesting song, and one that feels more like I can even say a more modern atmospheric black metal song, with a section that grows, the mix gets louder and louder until…silence, and a beautiful bass, synths and ambience starts, one that I repeated many times over, leading into a huge, hopeful ending to the song, with tremolo guitars setting a soundscape to a very well mixed bass underneath them.

Continuing the album we get the two songs named Rūst, I and II; first one being heavy, percussive, with a grainy mix and that, to me, felt like it never ended, it just blended into Rūst II, that has some more prominent riffs and some heavy industrial elements, that got me thinking about bands like Psyclon9 or Dawn of Ashes.

Slyme starts more like a traditional modern metal song, with solos, riffs, heavy pounding drums and then a solo ends, silence, and the song becomes complete chaos, heavily dissonant layers, ambiences and anytime a song has me saying “ok, that was weird” out loud, its a sign a absolutely loved it.

Then we get to a sort of “atmospheric black metal” section of the album, starting with Anweald, my absolute favourite of the album, a dissonant mid-tempo banger, with very interesting soundscapes and guitars, with some pretty triumphant melodies over it. Drumming isn’t as prominent (but for the start with some insane double drum fill), more like a layer on its own complementing the soundscape; a great song that again, feels like an atmospheric black metal song if not for the very short duration that leads into Ġewinn, again a mid-tempo song with some layers going on, guitars, tremolo, melodies, ambiences, a bass playing whole notes and some pretty neat drum fills. I would love both this song and the next, Wōdnes, to be one song; they feel right together. The composition choice on the aggressive and fast drum fills under what you could call a traditional heavy metal riff on this one just feels right.

On a pretty seamless transition, Sorwe starts, this time more dissonant, but still atmospheric. Especially from the mid to the end of the song, there’s a long bit of pure ambience and effects, not chaotic this time but more like creating a soundscape for us to drift in… 

And we do drift into the last song called Thede, a more industrial song that reminded me that nostalgia always hits when you least expect. A fitting way to finish a very experimental album, a song that felt straight from the early 2000s, with some metallic drumming, a song that could easily be a theme for any Matrix scene.

Conclusion:

The complete absence of vocals got me curious, but it worked out in the end. The industrial elements bring some nostalgia, the black metal elements are there, as many other subgenres and influences. If you’re into the experimental stuff, this is a very welcome surprise.

BZM Rating: 7.5/10

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