adg211288 Apnoe (2013) is the fourth full-length album to be released by German black metal act Todtgelichter. Since the release of their last album Angst (2010) the band has had some line-up changes revolving around the departure of bassist/vocalist Nils. Two new musicians have been brought in to replace him, Christoph on bass and Tobias on vocals. The rest of the group remains unchanged, bringing Todtgelichter up to a six strong line-up. Additionally there are two guest vocalists performing on Apnoe, Allen B. Konstanz (The Vision Bleak) and Daniel Brennare (Lake of Tears).

I haven’t experienced the music of Todtgelichter before Apnoe but I gather after doing a bit of background research for this review that Apnoe is a bit of a change of pace for the band, who have always been described as a black metal act, albeit an increasingly forward thinking, progressively inclined one. Apnoe sees the band’s progressive side becoming the lead element in their sound, so much that I would not even call Apnoe a progressive black metal album but rather a blackened progressive metal album. There are even a few parts that the album moves into avant-garde territory, and there’s actually a good portion of the music here that is not metal at all, but rather quiet, atmospheric music, some of which even has a bit of a jazzy edge to it. Songs like Until It All Begins are completely non metal, and that doesn’t matter in the slightest, because Todtgelichter excels at such songs.

What black metal elements that remain in Todtgelichter are also quite atmospheric in nature, since atmospheric is perhaps the best term to describe what Todtgelichter have put together here. The band isn’t going to be wowing their listeners with the overt technicality of traditionally styled progressive metal acts that come out of the Dream Theater school of the genre, but they do provide an immersive sound that refuses to conform to any particular standard. Prog, metal, rock, avant-garde, jazz, three styles of vocal delivery, lyrics mostly in English but also some of their native German, Todtgelichter certainly chop and change between some ideas during Apnoe’s ten tracks!

The music is impressive, with some songs coming across as being better than others. Embers and Lights of Highways are early highlights, while the German sung Tiefer Fall (featuring Allen B. Konstanz) has an addictive quality to it. The vocals are a real treat as well, being a mix between female vocals, cleanly sung male vocals, and black metal growling. Despite the black metal background of the band the vocals are mostly performed cleanly and in terms of overall presence on the album it’s female vocalist Marta who seems to have taken the dominant role within Todtgelichter now. What growls are here seem used to provide an extreme edge, never to really lead a song.

An album like this is never going to be easy to understand or get into. It’s taken me several listens just attempting to identify everything that Todtgelichter put into it. This is truly a well crafted album, and one that most definitely delivers the goods. An exceptional grade rating is deserved.

87/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/todtgelichter-apnoe-t2918.html)

Kev Rowland Todtgelichter started life as a Black Metal band releasing firstly a demo in 2003, then two albums in a similar vein (‘Was Bleibt...’ in 2005 and ‘Schemen’ in 2007) before they decided to spread their wings with their third album ‘Angst’ which came out in 2007. This saw references to their BM roots, but in many ways was a much more progressive album which stretched the boundaries in so many ways. Since then they have been concentrating on gigging and working on new material, but since the last album there has also been a line-up change with founder member Nils (vocals/bass) parting company. The band haven’t looked to replace him with another bassist/singer but have instead brought in specialist vocalist Topbias and bassist Christoph Wonerow (Nimbufera, ex-Satanium). The rest of the line-up is Marta (organ, vocals), Tentakel Parkinson (drums, keyboards) and Frederic (guitars, vocals).

While still rooted in Metal, the focus nowadays lies on their distinctive guitar melodies, the vocal duets between female lead Marta and male lead Tobias, more mature songwriting and a top-notch production by Eike Freese. What strikes the listener when coming across the album for the first time is that it is comes across almost as a compilation. What I mean by that is that the band seem to be happy in virtually any musical style so can move from pop through to extreme metal with ease, but while some songs contain elements of multiple genres others sit firmly within one, which in many ways makes the album quite hard to listen to. That it is an impressive piece of work is never in doubt, it is much more about the mindshift that is required to go from black metal to influences such as bands like Muse or Rammstein while recognising that it is all the same band. Definitely worthy of investigation. www.auralmusic.com