ENDSTILLE – Infektion 1813
- by Peter Loftus
- Posted on 30-11-2011
German Black Metallers Endstille return with their seventh full-length album. Once again, the themes are Satanism and war, as they explore the history of Germany and Europe in general.
The music has a kind of norse BM flavour with the slightest Death Metal influence, at times similar to Marduk or Dark Funeral. “Infektion 1813” sees them doing lots of things right. The production is clean and powerful. The songs are greatly varied, with chanted choruses, narrative passages and good old fashioned flat out blasting. The brutality contains threads of melody and the guys have the ability to add groove to the tunes without sacrificing that discordant, threatening energy that they do so well.
However, all of this variety does not hide the fact that this album hides a quite straightforward and unadventurous core and for all of Endstille’s efforts to the contrary, “Infektion 1813” leaves me slightly underwhelmed. While not disappointing, it certainly does not deliver in spades. Fans of the band will find it pleasing enough, but apart from that, it isn’t going to set the world alight.