Review Summary: The deepest abyss of depression and hopelessness.
Depressive/suicidal black metal is the most melancholic sub genre of black metal. You can clearly tell that just by the name of it. The pure hopelessness of life and animosity for the human race in general is quite evident when jamming certain bands. Suicide isn’t anything new to black metal, tracing all the way back to 1991 when Mayhem’s Dead blew his own brains out and left a cryptic note behind that said nothing more than “excuse all the blood”. It’s a terrifying concept to think about. But at the same time there’s a certain “charm” to it that adds to the authenticity of the bands that play this style of music.
Germany’s Sterbend is a band that embraces all aspects of the depressing nature of this genre. Slow and agonizing riffs, such a dark and eerie atmosphere that gives you the feeling that impending death is coming your way. Tortured and absolutely wailing vocals that perfectly portray the pain that these men are going though and displaying in musical form. Could be a minute, a week or a month, but you know at some point your time will be up. A lot of DSBM is too underproduced or doesn’t come off as genuine. Sterbend falls into the category of a band that is just purely depressed and lifeless.
When I say lifeless I mean that based on the fact that you feel like you have no hope for humanity while listening to
Dwelling Lifeless. Life sucks sometimes and that’s a fact. Sterbend makes sure that you feel all of the anguish of the negativity in life. While that may sound terrible to some, there’s not many albums that can give you that genuine feeling of absolute dreariness that most people have to go through on a day to day basis. The real struggle of life that is being put into the music itself.
Some bands do it just for show but Sterbend is not one of those bands. You can tell from the opening seconds that
Dwelling Lifeless is the straight up embodiment of all of the things there is to hate about life on earth. The high pitched wimpers of the vocals give you the feeling that these men really do not enjoy living. That there isn’t any hope or any light at the end of the tunnel. Just pure unadulterated horror and pain. The riffs are almost doom-esque, but they don’t need to be any other way for the overall vibe of this album. There’s no rainbows or flowers, nothing but death and an absolute void of life or anything positive.
That may sound unappealing to some. It might even sound downright unlistenable to others. But let me be clear. Life is not always how it seems. There are obstacles, some so deep that you may want to give up hope completely. Sterbend are the manifestation of all of the darkest and unilluminated aspects of life on earth while also coming across as being as real and genuine human beings. Sometimes you can’t escape the darkest corners of your mind and Sterbend make sure of that on
Dwelling Lifeless. Buckle up my friends because this is going to be one of the most depressing rides of your entire miserable lives. And you know what? Sometimes that’s just what we all need.
