Review by Fernando on November 8, 2023.

Polish black metal has always been a steadfast and consistent scene of great classic bands and artists, but interestingly enough, between their underground, the explosion of black/death metal and their thriving death metal scene, there seems to be a new trend within the scene. Maybe inspired by the rise of Mgła, a new wave of black metal bands has risen and they are pushing the boundaries of black metal into weird and unorthodox places, while still keeping the primordial essence of the subgenre. And thus we have Totenmesse, and their long awaited sophomore effort Fiktionlust.

Hailing from Krakow, Totenmesse first made themselves known with their debut To wherein they displayed their style of black metal that was cold and dark but also weirdly progressive and very complex. The main standout being their off-the-wall cover of King Crimson’s classic banger ‘21st Century Schizoid Man’, however, despite such a strong start, the band would be quiet save for 1 new song titled ‘Scrum’ for the Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack, and exactly 5 years later they finally returned. Not only is Fiktionlust the band’s grand return, and they are still displaying their demented and rabid style of black metal, but they’ve also improved on all their strengths and more.

The band’s biggest strength is how concise and impactful all their songs are. They manage to have bombastic and utterly dark songs with a lot of moving elements, from decrepit melodies, soaring riffs, dynamic drumming and new vocalist Mold vomiting screeds of death and existential dread while keeping the songs on relatively short run times of 3 to 4 minutes, and in the 2 instances of this record where they do go on for longer, 5 and 9 minutes. They make good use of extra time, the former 5 minute track ‘The Emperor’ masterfully displays how the band can keep a mid pace whilst still sounding massive and oppressive, akin to a relentless funeral dirge the song commands your attention and with enough burst of anger and an explosion of drums and riffs at the halfway point to end the song triumphantly, while the latter title track is the band has the band apply all the best elements of the album as a whole, and even has a minute or so of silence before ending the record with utter insanity and derangement.

Though the most striking element of the record is how weirdly psychedelic it sounds, the band’s dynamic and progressive leanings, combined with their pure black metal brutality give the album a disturbing psychedelic edge, not in an overt fashion like Oranssi Pazuzu, or the other avant-garde bands. The members are also involved in bands like Gruzja or Loathfinder, but it is there and it really gives the record a distinct sound and vibe. Furthermore the band with their playing and their songwriting successfully make this record sound modern yet timeless, since they make good use of modern production techniques while keeping their sound intense and without embellishments, everything you hear is the bare minimum, guitars, bass, drums and vocals and the band still sound massive and engrossing all the same.

It may have taken them half a decade, but Totenmesse truly returned with a vengeance, revitalized and more deranged than ever before, while the new wave of unorthodox Polish black metal may yet to catch on, Totenmesse can surely rise to the same heights as their countrymen Mgła and without being copyists to boot.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Review by Michael on November 11, 2022.

I was pretty surprised to get a new Disinter promo in my mailbox, I have to confess. Actually I didn't know that they are still active but they are and they are active as hell on their 6th full-length album called Breaker Of Bones! A lot of things have changed in the band, with Jon Billman they have a new bass player, Max Colunga is their new drummer (both since 2015, so “new” is relative) and the most important change comes with Casey Loving as front grunter. Just to keep you updated about the band interna. But now let's talk about the music...

Disinter changed their style a little bit on Breaker Of Bones. They have some more classic US death metal influences like Morbid Angel (especially in the guitar soloing) or Cannibal Corpse as they had in the past but they combine this very smart with a mix of some slight punkish drumming here and there, some more groovy death metal parts and also some more technical brutal death stuff. All together this makes this album a really interesting piece of old school death metal which is very much enjoyable and doesn't get boring for a second during about 38 minutes of total running time. Disinter manages it quite smart to not fall into sheer chaos in their compositions, sometimes it seems to be a total bedlam but after a few seconds of absolute brutal thrashing they find their way back into more organized structures.

Although the album as a whole is very enjoyable, there are some songs that kept my attention a little bit more because they have that certain special something if you know what I mean. First of all the title track is a brutal technical monster with such finesse that it really makes fun listening to it. The groovy parts which are combined with faster stuff are fantastic. If I should compare it to any similar bands, I would say that it sounds pretty much like newer Cannibal Corpse – that may also be due to the vocals which are quite similar to Corpsegrinders. Another very interesting track, especially because of its piano arrangement in the beginning, is 'Cold Cell Torture'. This is a good example of how close beauty and disgust lie beneath. This is a mid-paced and very catchy song with a lot of staccato-like riffing and a great double-bass inferno. 'Bring All Of Hell' shows their more punkish side that I mentioned before with the drumming tact and will probably be a bad-ass song for the mosh pit.

With Breaker Of Bones Disinter have created (at least in my humble opinion) one of the best albums in their 32-year career (with some breaks) and one of the best US death metal albums in 2022 because of the high number of breaks, twist and turns and the very good and powerful production. I hope that this will not be the last one they did and I hope that they will get some more publicity than they did in the past. So now go and let'em break your bones!!!

Rating: 9.5 out of 10 broken bones