Dodsferd - Spitting With Hatred, The Insignificance of Life (2011)

With a handle that would likely be unwise to use as a pick-up line or a qualification on any resume outside the black metal genre, the Greek Dodsferd's sixth album encompasses just about everything you can expect from the most direct output of the genre. Whether or not such traits have exhausted you will be dependent on your tolerance for hammering, fast blast beats, snarled vocals and streams of melody that seem endless in their execution, accompanied by the desperate atmosphere we equate with the style. Dodsferd does nothing to really distance itself from its influences, but they've been known to draw upon a pure punk/rock influence, both here and in their more light-hearted, 'fun' project Nadiwrath (same members).

This is heard on two tracks in particular. "Your Kingdom Was Built in a Lie" with its bass and simple rock riffing for the first minute, before ramping up into the harrowing bloodstream more typical of black metal; and the title piece, which features a very similar sort of guitar line before it too accelerates into churning, rabid mayhem. The closing track, "A Pile of Shit; the Only Hope of Your World" also deserves a mention as it's so much more melodic and memorable than the rest of the album, with drifting, blood glistening chord progressions that are more effective at haunting the soul, even if it does suffer from some repetition. Much of the remainder of the record is spent blasting as gloriously as possible through "The Hate Goes On" and "Praying in Vain Under the Shrine of Your God", which suffice despite their rather bloated length. None of the cuts are as lengthy as the previous album Suicide and the Rest of Your Kind Will Follow, but some still cross the 10, 12 and 14 minute boundaries.

Personally, I didn't find that Dodsferd were capable of managing such excess, and a few tracks seem like they're extended to merely fill space. Wrath does have some strengths, he's a precise and icy guitar player and his vocals are delightfully despotic, but even these breach the barrier of tolerable monotony at times. The lyrical and conceptual aesthetics here are simply suicide, moral and religious futility and an enthusiast nihilism that celebrates the end of all pulsing hearts. In other words, this is about as orthodox black metal as you can get, and your enjoyment is going to hinge on whether or not you really need to hear another album of its type. I wasn't impressed, but I can't deny that they possess the invested speed and vitriol of jagged, jaded veterans.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]