For a black metal musician that is very prone to starting one-man black metal projects, Spain's D.B. is surprisingly patient in their release schedule, sitting on the other side of the spectrum from similar acts released albums by the dozen. Case in point, I completely forgot that we haven't heard from the Délirant project since their debut in 2018 with Délirant. Perhaps the seven years didn't feel as long because D.B. has invested time in some of their other projects, like Negativa and Hässlig, both of which I've covered, and Negativa's record was also one that followed a shorter but still somehow lengthy four year gap since the previous one. So there hasn't exactly been a lack of D.B. projects in the meantime, but none of them hit the way Délirant does.
Even though Délirant, Negativa, and Hässlig all share a common black metal skeleton, they're each taking a different strand of it. Hässlig is the punky side of it. Negativa is atmospheric and harrowing. Délirant is closer to Negativa out of the two, also having an atmospheric take on black metal, but if there are two words to use that I also used to describe their debut, it would be "nauseating" and "psychedelic". It's the kind of atmospheric black metal that goes all in on the dissonance and makes the most of how disorienting that sound can be.
Where Thoughteater excels at is using dissonant guitar melodies in a way that feels odd, with the repeated motif in "Thoughteater IV" standing out. That kind of melodic uncanniness is contrasted with a more direct sense of melody, one that seems to take a bit from the punkiness of Hässlig (both in the riffing and in the d-beat blasts), while also having moments of doomy slower paces and ambient injections to contrast the black metal. These are the things that stand out from the self-titled debut, with Thoughteater otherwise reintroducing the elements that made that album work in the first place: disorienting riffing, howling shrieks, and dense production. Longer than its predecessor by only a couple of minutes, keeping that "quick trip" aspect to it, though one that is still very dependent on the listener's immersion.
Go ahead, let this one consume your thoughts!
