Verwoed - De Val review
| Band: | Verwoed |
| Album: | De Val |
| Style: | Black metal |
| Release date: | May 23, 2019 |
| A review by: | RaduP |
01. De Val
02. De Kwelling Van Het Bestaan
03. Vergif
04. Het Bedriegende Oog
05. Verder Van Het Licht
Hey, the Dutch have an interesting black metal scene. Who would've thought?!
Sure, I was aware of some Dutch black metal acts before, but I honestly didn't really give the scene that much attention. And then Roadburn's Maalstroom event came, which had a lot of Dutch bands like Laster, Turia and Terzij De Horde in the spotlight, as well as a commissioned collaboration under the Maalstroom name. And while Verwoed themselves were not part of that, other bands who were did release new albums this year, like Laster (check out this review) or Nusquama, which in turn did bring enough attention to the scene so that people were looking forward to De Val, Verwoed's full length debut.
On its surface, De Val is a pretty standard and not too experimental black metal album. It doesn't ride the dissonant trend, isn't overly atmospheric or crusty. Instead it feels like it takes cues from atmospheric or dissonant or melodic or psychedelic black metal just enough to make De Val have a distinct feel that feels comfortably ambitious without feeling like its sound goes too much in one direction. And it does it all with such skill that you would find it hard to believe that this is a one-man band. It does feel like it sometimes lacks a little punch and rides the mid-paced wave a bit too much, but even at its most monotonous moments, one can't help but feel absolutely sucked in.
A lot of it has to do with the stellar production as well as the great songwriting. The quality is so good that it gives an extra hypnotic quality to riffs that might otherwise feel dull. There's such a sinister atmosphere that is created without too much discernible effort, one that feels more expanding than it feels crushing. It is usually post-rock bands that do this "less is more" approach, but here Verwoed appropriates that to create a pretty unusual way for black metal to sound atmospheric, feeling both effortless and like it's been here all along, but I can't really think of anything to compare it to, or anything that does what it does as well. That is not to say that De Val feels generic or that it lacks diversity, since the last track alone proves that wrong, but rather that it really didn't feel like it needed more dynamics to achieve the effect that it still managed to achieve.
I really have a hard time wrapping my mind around how De Val manages to be so effective and have such a large scope with basically just slightly dissonant slightly atmospheric mid-paced black metal. That ought to be done to death by now and yet I really don't feel that anyone has done it as well with so little. And with it being such a short record, I feel that Verwoed might have some even bigger things in store. In fact, probably the whole of the Dutch scene has more in store. We should be paying attention.
 | Written on 01.06.2019 by Doesn't matter that much to me if you agree with me, as long as you checked the album out. |
Comments
Comments: 12
Visited by: 133 users
| RaduP CertifiedHipster Staff Posts: 9124  |
I'll take this short opportunity to also bring attention to this other Dutch bm album that got released recently and features members of Turia and Laster
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Some additional info: Joris Nijenhuis (Atrocity, Leaves' Eyes) took care of the drumming on this album. Everything else was played by Erik B., Joost Vervoort (vocalist Terzij de Horde) took care of the artwork. Ryanne van Dorst (Dool) took care of the female vocals on Verder Van Het Licht. And JB van der Wal (Dool, Herder, ex-Aborted, ex-Atrocity, ex-Leaves' Eyes) took care of the mixing and mastering.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| LuciferOfGayness Account deleted |
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| RaduP CertifiedHipster Staff Posts: 9124 |
Written by [user id=173045] on 01.06.2019 at 17:27 Sadly no. Coding doesn't work in lists for some reason. So not even url linking. Only thing you can do is embed BC players in the comments or in the intro
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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| RaduP CertifiedHipster Staff Posts: 9124 |
Written by [user id=173045] on 01.06.2019 at 17:27 I agree but at the same time, I liked it more than most of those in the same style. Something about it works really well.
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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| Mercurial Posts: 1175  |
Written by RaduP on 01.06.2019 at 17:42 Yarp, these guys do it better than the majority, but I've always found the "done before" argument doesn't hold up to scrutiny anyway considering the endless boners for OSDM, second-wave black and doom et al.
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| Czerny Reiter Posts: 291  |
This album does it for me as a black metal tour de force, with plenty of stylistic showcasing that mixes all of the genre's tricks without compromising with any of them and boasting a stellar production to wrap it all up. Vocals are on point and the clean singing in the last track comes as a most welcome surprise.
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| LuciferOfGayness Account deleted |
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| Mercurial Posts: 1175 |
Written by [user id=173045] on 01.06.2019 at 22:50 One can still copulate with a 65% boner, therefore a boner it still is. Also, you gave Pissgrave and Ataraxie 8s, and they're from the overdone department  I wasn't talking specifically about you though. Rather in a general sense, that people tend to use the "done before" argument for stuff they don't like that much, when just about everyone loves a carbon copy of their preferred sounds and tend not to use that point in those instances.
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| TheBigRossowski Posts: 1357  |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 01.06.2019 at 17:07 As some of your, ugh, Dutch youth, might say, man: dit is kanker lekker. Of course, I'm not saying it's not that. I wouldn't phrase that myself, but it is indeed delicious. De Val is corruptibly palpable, yet indeed, tasty, man,... sir.
---- That rug really tied the room together, did it not? 
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by TheBigRossowski on 03.06.2019 at 19:59  you know only to use "kanker" in Rotterdam, right? btw since half my relatives are from Rotterdam I am used to hearing it often. Also used by my 77 year old dad.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| TheBigRossowski Posts: 1357 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 03.06.2019 at 21:21 Yeah, or the young bloods from Delft, hahaha! It's weird to hear, much more than anything I'm accustomed to in Germany. XD
---- That rug really tied the room together, did it not?
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