Seltsame Erden – Gedankentempeln (Hauntingly Mystical Black Metal)

 

I decided on three music reviews this week, can you believe it? They must be pretty damn good then! Truth. As I go through more and more promos over the years I feel like my mind demands things to be more clever. And with good reason; there are far too many acts doing things you’ve heard before. If I need that, I’ll just go to the classics. So…show me what you can really do, you know? As an example we have Germany’s Seltsame Erden, who’s already taking a different approach in just their name, and Gedankentempeln, their first full-length, has set some new standards for me.

   

Though this already dropped via cassette and digital in 2023 via Canti Eretici, it’s now seeing a special digipack version from Chaos Records next month, so therefore here we go into the realm of mysticism. This term is tossed about in black metal circles without much thought behind it. It cannot be so simply because you use it. Seltsame Erden, however, exemplify the idea. Gedankentempeln opens with a misty fog of a keyboard intro, flowing into incessantly grief-stricken riffs. It will easily remind an experienced listener of the repetitive delivery of early 1990s acts, yet the structuring of the sound is more emotional in quality, with light touches of dungeon synth for that occult edge, but never to an imperious degree. Further, they never remain stereotyped with their delivery, knowing when to slow, and when to keep pounding at your heart with noose-like precision. True mysticism.

 

Seltsame Erden Official Instagram

Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls

Seltsame Erden – Gedankentempeln
Canti Eretici, Chaos Records
Cover Art: Nuno Zuki (Belial NecroArts)
4.5 / 5