Year: 2022
Total Time: 29:35
Label: Consouling Sounds
Seven years have passed since the release of “Self”, the last album of the quintet from Utrecht. And as much as it had gone relatively unnoticed by my ears, the more interesting it sounded after listening to “In One Of These, I Am Your Enemy”, as it is a representative sample of the Dutch extreme scene that gave us many interesting releases from bands like FREJA, FLUISTERAARS, LASTER, WITTE WIEVEN and SVARTVIT among others. Even their name is inspired by the poem “Einde” by the Dutch poet Hendrik Marsman (1899-1940), a leading expressionist (former vitalist) and one of the most famous Dutch poets. One of his favourite recurring themes was death as a metaphor for defeat in life, as well as his critical attitude towards pre-war Dutch society, most notably in the phrase: “Holland is and remains a misery. Anyone who treads on this ground sinks into the mud.”
The poetry is good and sufficiently instructive and interwoven with the themes, but let’s see what happens with the music. The first thing that struck me is the length of the album. Not even half an hour, it could well be considered an EP, but it is a regular full release. Immediately inevitable associations with “Reign In Blood” come to mind but only in terms of duration and not the musical direction, the basis of which is Black Metal interspersed with atmospheric, post and thrash-ish riffs. The introductory and shorter in duration “Cheiron”, works as a very good appetizer, short, dynamic, galloping, while in the title track that follows, the melodic Swedish Death Metal makes its appearance, but not so much as that of AT THE GATES, but rather following some Hardcore forms.
The almost 14-minute “Precipice” that closes the album, starts with a slow tempo, almost hypnotic, framed by the screams of Joost Vervoort, to continue with the characteristic guitar tremolo and galloping thrash riffs intertwined with the solid rhythm section. TERZIJ DE HORDE manage to find the middle way between mystery, anguish, melancholy, with the long compositions giving the necessary width and depth without becoming twisted and ‘orthodox’, while at the same time not losing the atmosphere, in combination with the epic, as well as symbolic, semiotic cover of the album that you can look at for hours. Its short duration helps the listener to press the replay again, not to be able to understand and listen to what he/she just heard but because he/she really wants to feel “In One Of These, I Am Your Enemy” again, maybe even slightly disappointed by the short listening experience…
… and in the many provinces
the voice of the water
with its eternal calamities
is feared and heard.
Rating: 7/10
Editor: Dimos Karadimos
Related Link: TERZIJ DE HORDE – Facebook Page
