Rating: 3/5
Distributor/label: Prosthetic Records
Released: 2018
Buy Album: https://store.prostheticrecords.com/item/63678
Band Website: https://www.facebook.com/DODSRIT
BAND LINE-UP:
Christoffer Öster – Everything.
TRACKLISTING:
1. Aura
2. Ändlösa Ådror
3. A Drowning Voice
4. Spirit Crusher
REVIEW
Say what you like about our Scandinavian siblings, they know a thing or two about making metal. Better yet, they’ve a beautiful region from which to draw inspiration, with woodland and aching scenery to spare. It’s visual resplendency that translates so damn well to sonic caresses – perfect. What’s more is that the likes of DÖDSRIT can convey this so well through music so effortlessly. So what’s on the table this time?
It’s an apt title, is “Spirit Crusher”. There’s something about the weight and magnitude of the album that just leaves you feeling so heavy. Whether it’s the bludgeoning blackness provided in the album’s black metal moments, like the fiery “Aura” (once the melodious intro dies away); or the wistful melodies in the aching strains of “A Drowning Voice” – it all leaves the soul just a little broken. It’s really rather bittersweet, as this sort of post-metal doesn’t come along too often. The usual euphoria that permeates most post-metal records is largely absent, leaving only a bitter sense of yearning for something you can’t place your finger on.
It’s by no means a new thing, what DÖDSRIT are doing. Call it crass, but you see the genre “post-metal”, and you’ll instantly have notions of long-winded songs full of atmosphere, beauty and unconventionally-structured heaviness. There are certain expectations one gets for the genre, and these are largely met on “Spirit Crusher”. Some of the melodies and beats feel very familiar to anyone with any form of familiarity to the genre. Subsequently, it can sit in the background, somewhat, and be lost amongst itself. There are definitely moments when you’ll find yourself having moved between songs and won’t have realised – not too great for maintaining attention!
Saying all that, it’s an intriguing twist that proceedings are quite so bleak. It’s not often that you find an album that maintains that sense of beauty amongst such a hopeless setting. You know, it’s rather a good soundtrack for a rainy day at home – really rather downbeat, yet oddly pretty in the same breath. The melodies woven into the album do carry a journeying quality to it; transporting you from the doldrums of your daily life to a rainy Scandinavian woodland for a spot of doldrums on holiday. No easy task, but one well may despite that creeping sense of déjà vu.
“Spirit Crusher” is a funny old album, to be honest. As said earlier, it feels very familiar, like an old pair of fluffy slippers, but has a strange cold and dysphoria to it that doesn’t often come across in other records. It’s both surprising and not so, all at once. DÖDSRIT might slot neatly into the wider genre, but with this release being quite so intriguing, it might well be worth a listen, especially on a rainy day.
REVIEW BY LEE CARTER
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