Band:	Toadeater
Album:	Bexadde
Style:	Crust Punk, Post black metal
Release date:	September 2022

01. Asche
02. Let The Darkness Swallow You
03. Lowest Servant
04. Molten Gold (Down Your Throat)

Toads aren't the greatest source of protein. So why else would you eat toads? For a neat serving of atmospheric post-black metal, perhaps? German Toadeater started out as a crusty black metal band that has since developed into an ever more atmospheric outfit, adding long, repeated riff sections and choral passages and topping it off with anguished DSBM-like vocals. Is it good? Mostly. Does it work? Kind of. Is it memorable? Partly.

There is a lot of good stuff to find on this record, especially towards the latter half of it. Bexadde starts out with mid-to-fast-paced black metal, introducing guitarist/vocalist M.’s tortured, high-pitched screams behind a barely melodic, mid-register wall of M.’s guitars and S.’s drums. B.’s bass guitar is sadly seldom to be heard, and as so many times before, I implore black metal bands to tune up their basses a bit more. It is audible, but has no drive, no presence, and it affects the guitars badly and makes them sound weak.

All in all, it is a decent start, but nothing ear-catching. However, at the 2-minute mark, the metal cacophony starting out “Asche” (Ash) dies off and a single, beautiful guitar line desolately bridges the song into the next section… which sounds more or less like the first two minutes. That break was beautiful, but it is the only memorable thing about “Asche”, which already made me worried seeing that the following track “Let The Darkness Swallow You” runs for over 11 minutes. Will Toadeater be able to sustain a song for this long when the short opener already was an exercise in repetition?

As I feared, the verse goes on for too long, the bridge goes on for too long, and the only surprise is the goofy vocals chanting the track title over and over in the chorus. The guitars seem to go for an emotional, post-black melodic schtick that’s hampered both by the muddy production and the unmemorable melodic lines. Just before the song reaches 8 minutes, it finally changes into a slow break erupting into blast-beats-supported chugging three-chord rhythm guitar riff on top of which the lead guitar plays a slightly off-beat semitone-driven tremolo riff that works very well. Then, some ferocious snare work, and another riff which is sadly barely audible behind the vocals and drums because of aforementioned muddy production. Listen, there is nothing wrong with lo-fi (just check my gushing review of Belarusian Pa Vesh En), but Bexadde’s production job comes off as more sloppy than intentionally lo-fi.

So, that made for a quite negative start to this review, and this is because the first half of Bexadde simply is not very interesting. Luckily, this album is the opposite of front-loaded, meaning the good stuff is yet to come. “Lowest Servant” employs mid-paced blast beats and oddball choirs trading vocal duties with M.’s shrieking (which, credit where credit is due, is highly competent - unlike his goofy clean lead vocals that pop up here and there). After nearly 6 minutes, a well-needed post-rock break enters (I think I even hear a sparse, dark piano accentuating every full beat here, nice!) until the same mid-paced barely-riffy black metal returns. This time, however, it eventually blends together with the post-rock and makes the final part of “Lowest Servant” one of the highlights of Bexadde.

Saving the best for last, the unfortunately way too long “Molten Gold” finally gels together the post-rock, orchestral, and black elements in a very convincing way. The lead guitar churns out an “up-down-up-down” riff reminiscent of the excellent “Xibalba” (and, let us be honest here, nearly every song since) from Rotting Christ’ Κατά Τον Δαίμονα Εαυτού, and I wish it had gone on longer, because this is the sort of repetitive, mantric riff that deserves to be churned out for minutes at a time. After a (way too long) detour through uninteresting riffing, this “Xibalba”-like riff returns together with added elements for accent, and when the orchestral aspects return after 4½ minutes to build on this riff and later erupt into a hypnotic choral section, I am thoroughly enjoying Toadeater’s new effort. After some more plodding sections, the song gains and gains momentum as M. yells out:

“Another year that comes and goes
Another door forever closed
Another promise to ease you from your ache
Another day you crawl like a snake”

These lyrics might as well serve as the short version of this review; Bexadde contains many sections that “come and go”, hint at genius “doors forever closed”, bring “another promise” but too often extend their songs with parts that “crawl like a snake”. I quote myself here: “it’s great when it’s good”, but sadly it all too often simply is not very good. When it is, however, it is great. It is just that, a bit too much patience is demanded to reach these highlights.