Friday, June 8, 2012

Todesstoss – Sauglingshangwerk Aushilfheins (Traumorgane Kreationen)





Todesstoss is one of the very best at making raw and ….well, fucked up black metal expressionism. Once a solo project of Martin Lang, (recently becoming a three piece) mainly consisting of hollow fuzz clouds of gritty distortion and echoing, reverb saturated, guitar buzz; lunatic rants in German; and very primitive mechanical, almost industrial, drum machine rhythms that take the early work of Urfaust and strip it even further down into a cold concrete bunker stained with blood and reeking of isolation and bizarre deaths. I’ve been following this guys work only for the last two years or so, but in that time I’ve grabbed everything that I could starting with the esoteric and psychotic Spiegel der Urangste, which sounded like raw black metal as heard through a slow awakening from a Chloroform inhalation, but even through his incredible catalog there was nothing….and I mean NOTHING remotely hinting at the horrors that are found on Sauglingshangwerk Aushilfheins. This album takes horror, insanity, and depravity to new levels of shock and artistic craft!!!! If you’re looking for a mindfuck…get Sauglingshangwerk Aushilfheins, and if you’re either experiencing Todesstoss for the first time or are a repeat patron of the deranged sounds that this incredible act can conjure up, this is the one that you want to go with.

Sauglingshangwerk Aushilfheins is the story of a man, J. Black, who works for a company called Death Inc. and his job is to collect newborn children and execute them, further along in this 30-minute horror tale filled with macabre German poetry written by Lang himself, you can actually hear the screaming of infants and the gun shots of death. The typical psychotic tantrum rants of twisted poetry that are a Todesstoss trademark are on an all time high performance here, they are really emotional and fluctuate violently and systematically between moods as he is both the narrator and J. Black the baby butcher.

Occasionally you can hear the basslines pumping and pulsing through the sinister minimal guitar wailing tone and wall of feedback and reverb. The song builds up to the middle where it just explodes into this siren of blood and homicide, it becomes this surreal black metal storm of delicately placed drum patterns, throbbing basslines of seismic proportion, a diesel motor rumble and grind of intense sound, and some of the most intense and bizarre moments that you will ever hear.  This album, broken between the intense and abhorrent title track and the more darkwave/industrialized “Spannungstrauma X” will definitely rape your morality.  Todesstoss in any phase, but especially in the trio phase that it has morphed into during the last year, is like a homicidal mixture of Einsturzende Neubauten Germanic harshness and industrial improv. with the raw and sonic effects of everything from Burzum and Urfaust, to supernatural forces and serial killers, more than likely on mind altering drugs.

Even I find this album challenging to describe, and that’s saying a lot. Yes, the sounds and subject are generally, to most, repulsive, but  the reason that this extreme story is so powerful and justified is due to the fact that it only takes half of a brain cell to realize the sentiment behind it. Sauglingshangwerk Aushilfheins  is so great because it represents a fictitious horror/black humor scenario in which humans are sacrificed by force, for humane reasons. Black Metal, and metal in general is not apologetic and neither are such minds as those behind Todesstoss, which literally translates to “deathblow” in German, a fitting title for this opus that they put forth.

The second portion of the album is the black psychedelic monument of insanity titled “Spannungstrauma X”. Fans of the briallinace of Toil and Hateful Abandon fused with Burzum and Urfaust, with a heavy nod to SIXX (Devil Doll) and the darkwave influence.

If you haven’t heard Todesstoss, then you haven’t heard the entire side of the truly insane and wild side of black metal. I’m in the process of an interview with Martin Lang in the next few weeks, so expect some wild shit to post and  deeper excursions off the pier of sanity with that and Sauglingshangwerk Aushilfheins.

From what Martin has told me, this and the other recent Todestoss S/T are only available through the label site, but don’t let that hinder you from buying and exploring, check the links below and YouTube to hear and experience first hand the sonic manipulation and psychotic power that this band will compromise you with. Todesstoss is the ultimate challenge between psychosis and sanity, emotions and logic, and self expression over popularity.






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