Review: Toadeater – Bexadde

Introduction

Toadeater, a German post-black metal band, released their third full length «Bexadde» on September the 9^th.

Do you like your black metal raw & traditional? Nothing wrong with that, so do I. But I also enjoy other genres of music, and every so often these sneak their way into our beloved black metal sphere. Toadeater is labeled as post-black metal, not my go-to genre, but this is something different, at least for me. This has the wall of wailing guitar noise accompanied by sweeping leads, blast beats & screeching vocals that I crave.

So, regardless of genre tags, is this a good album? Let’s find out…

With only four songs, the shortest one clocking in at just under 8 minutes and 30 seconds, this is not an album for fun parties, but rather fitting for a solemn listening experience.

Track list:

1. Asche 09:48

2. Let The Darkness Swallow You 11:54

3. Lowest Servant 08:29

4. Molten Gold (down your throat) 13:43

Asche & Let the Darkness Swallow You

First track, Asche goes straight for the jugular and instantly sets the mood. The blackened hardcore part in the beginning demands your attention and set you up for the more melodic parts that follow. Great opener.

Let The Darkness Swallow You, the second track, does a damn good job of pulling you into its black void. There are so many great parts in this song, they’re like waves washing up on the beach, slowly digging away the sand from under your feet until you’re left floating like in a sensory deprivation tank. This is the essence of what I look for in music; to take my mind off every day, mundane terrestrial life.

Lowest Servant & Molten Gold

Third song Lowest Servant has a few slower parts with some beautiful guitar leads and almost feels like the calming before the storm, even though this song has its own blasting moments. By this point, they can do no wrong it seems, as I blindly follow them with every footstep on this journey into the unknown. My mind is at this point fully occupied with absorbing the music as my neighbors, in vain, are knocking on my door in a desperate effort to make it stop.

We arrive at the fourth and final track, Molten Gold; an apt title, as the songs moves along like how molted gold would pour out of a crucible, or lava run out of a volcano, sometimes slowly pouring, sometimes splashing and setting everything it touches on fire. Spanning almost 14 minutes, this is an epic track that leaves me exhausted but smiling at the end of it. A worthy closer to this encompassing journey.

What’s this knocking and shouting at my door?

Conclusion:

This is not traditional in the black metal sense of the word, but what this feels like is a continuation, a somewhat polished version of the raw emotions within black metal, DSBM specially. It ebbs and flows much like one would expect from a full band, rather than what we know from most single entity projects.

Just as I like my coffee, sometimes with milk and sugar, but most times dark roasted and pitch black, this album gives me all of that, and I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys their music in solitude.

BMZ Score: 9 / 10