TEUFELSBERG

TEUFELSBERG “Ordre du Diable”

By Dr. Abner Mality

Seems to me there is not as much black metal as there used to be. Is the scene in decline? I can’t say for sure, but it could be that newer bands are too atmospheric, too progressive and just too overthought to appeal to the base of black metal fandom.

That’s where classical sounding bands like TEUFELSBERG come in. This is straightforward, uncomplicated black metal much in the style of the mid-90’s. Confusingly, the band is from Poland, has a German name and a French album title! But there’s no mistaking the purity of this art. Six well-produced tracks that fly by and seem to touch a primal chord within the soul of corpse-painted ghouls.”Devil’s Praetorians” is fast and very “martial” sounding...a call to battle. But most of TEUFELSBERG’s material is surprisingly mid-paced and crunchy, like the creepy, catchy “Procession of Dying Cherubs”, which is textbook slower black metal. “In The Glare of a Funeral Moon” is more misty and dissonant, like old MAYHEM. But best track has to be “Fiat Luceat Lux”, where the satanic touch of the first two BATHORY albums is plain to hear. Timeless stuff there…

The band’s name track “Teufelsberg” wraps things up with a longer song that mixes speeds and ends with a stretch of dungeon synth, which seems to be a nod to current trends I could have done without. But really, “Ordre du Diable” is just solid, primordial black metal...maybe what bands need to get back to.

SIGNAL REX RECORDS

TEUFELSBERG