Already a glance at the album cover piqued our interest to explore this one further. A wispy white figure on a black horse painted in pseudo-impressionist undertones and a band logo emerging straight from the woods. Meaning, if I would not know what it says, I’d never guess. That metal joke never gets old, doesn’t it? And then they called their band Mental Cruelty, which – come to think of it – may well be indicative of their metal style.
Zwielicht (twilight in German)1 slams its razor-sharp metal down your throat with wanton abandon. To the point that it sometimes makes you check your sanity and grab them old meds that still lurk somewhere in a closet. Yet again, this brutal onslaught of Extreme Metal often sounds like a dumbed-down version of Anaal Nathrakh in after-hours mode. Somewhat in cahoots with the melodic prowess of an undead Fleshgod Apocalypse on the flight from the witches. So there you have it. With all its cranky ferocity on Twilight‘s display, there is still ‘moar’ brutality out there if this is your fancy. I can hear the gods laughing.
Once Twilight kicked off, we were blown away by the artful orchestration, the sudden appearance of acoustic samples, and an atmospheric streak to dream for. Frantic rasps and roars with the occasional belted clear voice part for added value. All of that metallic mana surges forward on a mighty wave of harsh metal that gave us hope. Hope that Symphonic Death and Black Metal finally found a new source of inspiration.
And the highly technical and speedy Obsessis A Daemonio with its blackened yet melodic doom-laden drama seemed to confirm this with some gusto. Until – whoever did the songwriting decided that the past needed to be recognized, some other hill to die on, like. Meaning, Mental Cruelty slammed those breakdowns into Deathcore and Brutal Death Metal onto that often elaborate metal platter at the most unfortunate moments. And to add insult to injury, the band elevated all that to pigs on stakes with all sorts of growls, gurgles, grunts, squeals, and snarls.
And this killed the momentum of otherwise superbly paced tracks down to nothing. I mean, we love ourselves some neat gurgles on a blood-soaked Death Metal platter. But here, things often just won’t sync. And Zwielicht is full of those doubtful specimens. Let’s take Forgotten Kings as an example, shall we? This track is trve Black Metal atrocity with some Death Metal infusions. Metal hot enough to sear your sweaty hair off your skull, garnished with the choir from hell and layered with thundering superbly structured ferocity. Until, by around 3:45, the breakdown kills the track all over again. In other words, the band continually destroys their neatly arranged metal structures with ‘core-ish attacks into Death Metal’s nether regions.
Yet another negative is Zwielicht‘s dense production. This mighty wall of sound often risks losing elements of that elaborate abundance of different tracks present on each song.2 And that’s a pity because here less would be more. And don’t get me wrong, Mental Cruelty‘s musical prowess is mostly outstanding. Only, the band decided to slam everything they got onto a disk. It’s this ‘just because they can’ thing, today’s mixing boards are fun machines with a plethora of options after all. And that leads to an overloaded production that even the application of the Stockholm Syndrome of a felt thousand listens by the review desk cannot fix. There’s a lot of bloat in all those tracks that – with some voluntary self-editing and a dose of restraint – could have led to a much crisper version of this here record.
So where does this leave us? At first, the RMR crew didn’t quite know what to expect from this record. Zwielicht is our first-ever exposure to Mental Cruelty‘s harsh ways. And this band’s truly a talented bunch that thrives on a gluttony of ideas, good and bad. They genuinely like to evolve in their metal offerings, and this is a good thing. However, some of those moving parts don’t go too well together and just following your Neanderthal urges won’t necessarily get you great results. It may showcase all these shiny metallic objects you excel in, but it will do nothing to the coherence of a record.
That doesn’t turn Zwielicht into a bad record, though. And how could it, the folks over at Mental Cruelty know their shit. This is highly technical and largely well-executed Extreme Metal. It’s just that all those elements won’t quite sync this time. So, less slam and more raw orchestrated brutality might be better next time. Or, failing that, a ferocious attack of gurgled brutal Death Metal that will burn your socks off might do the trick. But mixing both didn’t quite work out for this gang. As it stands today, the RMR crew just couldn’t get over that stop ‘n’ go songwriting that always drowned the momentum when the record was truly getting somewhere.
Ed’s note: Fancy yet another black / death mix? If so, click this. Or have a go at Undergang for more precise musings.
Record Rating: 5/10 | Label: Century Media Records | Web: Facebook (band)
Release Date: 23 June 2023