Kev Rowland No-one can accuse either the band or the label of being under-stated here. The band name means “the fetish of the undeterred impetus” and there is then a couple of complex paragraphs explaining what that actually means while the album itself is described as “The obliteration is a principle which sets down the exploitation of external material for every organism. The principle is preserved by the permanent production of biomass. The usage of achievements of destruction becomes the base of all life. Every organism is thrown and obtained through the tunnel of decomposition. This comprehension of the obliteration became the initial point for the musical and lyrical abstractions.” Yes, it is quite safe to say that there is nothing ‘normal’ going on here.

That is definitely the case with this 5 song Black Metal album which has as much in common with Art Zoyd as it does with Darkthrone. In some ways this is ‘noise’, in others ‘industrial’ (in the Throbbing Gristle as opposed Rammstein sense), but always complex and never compromising on any level. 64 minutes of music that keeps hitting the listener like a battering ram, daring them to turn it off and return to the sanity of anything else. But while on many levels it is almost anti-music, on other levels it contains some of the most interesting stuff I have ever heard. Certainly you need to be in the right mindset to actually be able to listen to this at all, and very few will view this as music at all. But if you want something that is so extreme that it attempts to defy what we normally perceive as music, then this should be interesting. But, it does come with the health warning that most people will just view this as noise and a waste of electricity. Thankfully I’m not one of them. www.templeoftorturous.com

Vehemency After minor delays, Vom Fetisch der Unbeirrtheit’s debut was unleashed in the beginning of this year, offering two discs of pure audial insanity - not to forget the physical package in which the music comes: this hardcover digibook with 26 pages of intricate artwork plus lyrics is one of the sweetest ways I’ve seen an album presented in a while.

To the actual musical content, Psychohygiene is indeed divided into two discs of which the first presents the black metal, not far from the oddness and horror of Blut Aus Nord but in more natural sound, meaning that the drums are real and the whole sound in general is more primitive. The songs are mostly long and meandering but never pretentiously technical, e.g. the convulsing riffing in the beginning of ”Anschließendes Verstummen” that is still - in some weird way - soothing instead of meaninglessly random. Some ambient parts are to be found from this disc, most prominently on the disc highlight ”Non-Narkotikum” that has a five minute breakdown in the middle until it rises to grandiose guitar lines and blast beats again.

The second face of Psychohygiene comprises audial experimentation in the form of ambient and noise - and all kinds of weird experimenting with e.g. piano and techno beats on ”Imperativ: Kategorische Zerstörung, XIIIx losgelöst”. This side of the album might logically receive negative response from the black metal crowd, but I find this style fitting to the band, considering the filthiness of the first disc as well. We are not talking about any masterpiece tracks here, but songs like the traditional, highly distorted and rumbling ”Psychogramm” noise track, and the disturbing sounds à la Will Over Matter on ”Du magst solche Szenen” are pure pleasure to my ears.

Vom Fetisch der Unbeirrtheit and Psychohygiene came out of nowhere but made their way to the top list of 2011 already, and I could see this album among the best come end of the year. Wholly recommended for those who enjoy a lot of dirtiness and chaos in their black metal and don’t mind the experimentation either.