Toadeater – Bit To Ewigen Daogen (Review)

The fact that Toadeater is one of the most talented newcomers in German black metal should be known to many, at least since the clearly recognizable musical quality leaps between their previous releases. Accordingly, the bar is set high, with which the new long player Bit To Ewigen Daogen must now be evaluated. But the 5-track album of the band, especially known for its atmosphere, shows itself completely unimpressed by the expectations and seems to be played completely free. More importantly, however, it manages to exceed the expected standards even a bit and thus sends the listener once again on an extremely frosty journey, whose hardships can captivate from beginning to end.

Since their 2018 demo, the North German band Toadeater has been a positive term for attentive fans of underground black metal and has managed in the meantime to establish themselves further and further with their debut album Codex and the subsequent Hestia EP, while constantly expanding their fanbase especially thanks to their flagship, the cold setting. With the quality of Bit To Ewigen Daogen, the trio could now finally make the leap to true underground metal greatness, whose path seems to lead steadily upwards.

Immediately with the intro song, Toadeater show that the full package atmosphere will probably be pushed on the listeners’ ears on Bit To Ewigen Daogen. Shallow, really strong and above all catchy piano sounds represent the start of this icy journey and show the way for the following gloom. The melody is then taken over by the guitar and seamlessly incorporated into the second track, which promotes and condenses the nightmarish setting. Through the mixture of freezing, hard riffing and oppressive melodies, including various solo parts, the setting builds up quickly. Another point that comes in favor of this is the use of clear guitar tracks.

In addition, the songwriting proves to be extremely versatile in the course of the album and gives aggressive as well as melancholic parts enough focus without sounding too differentiated. Any tempo changes, led by excellent drumming strengthen this even more. No matter if you are taken into calmer passages or blastbeat black metal, every offered speed can fully unfold and convince. Occasionally, Toadeater also include a few Post Metal elements, which are however rather discreet and round off the sound further without ironing it too slick.
Special highlight on the respective tracks are the vocals for me, which have been designed very varied and concise. From nasty Black Metal nagging, to ice-cold screams of despair to hymnal clean vocals, you really get everything here. Especially the chorus-like clean parts stand out and fit perfectly into the rough musical ambience. The trio on top of that even using synthesizers that remind a little of Ulver is the absolute overkill for me then, which imprints this album the predicate valuable and manifests the longevity of the sound.

Bit To Ewigen Daogen was recorded, mixed and mastered by Andy Rosczyk at Goblin Soundstudio, who managed to raise the overall atmosphere of the band to a new level and cobble together the various influences and elements into a truly great final product. For the sound Toadeater wanted to create here, this was definitely the perfect choice, because not only the instrumentals, but especially the vocals have been captured excellently and come across as authentic and fitting.

Since October 2nd, the long player is available in physical form via REVOLVERMANN RECORDS as well as MANIYAX RECORDS, where you can get the CD version in addition to two different vinyl versions. If you prefer to grab the cassette, you can get one of the 200 hand-numbered copies at KELLERASSEL RECORDS, which you should not put off for so long, because their stock, as you can hear, is shrinking rapidly and is slowly running low

What Toadeater have delivered with Bit To Ewigen Daogen is in my eyes simply fantastic and shows the progress of the band right in front of your eyes. Here you get to deal with a deep, very dense atmosphere, interwoven with emotions and musical variety, which is especially impressive for including some post elements without really sounding like plastic Post Black Metal. This is a very strong mixture of the distinctive sound of Dutch bands like Turia or Solar Temple and classic USBM blasting, which should be a serious AOTY candidate for every fan of atmospheric Black Metal. Thanks to the music of this trio, winter can finally come over!

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