Black / extreme metal trio Wiedgedood are not in the business of wasting time. This is their third album since their inception a mere four years ago, and they’ve somehow managed that whilst sharing members with Amenra and Oathbreaker; both busy bands until the end of last year when the latter decided to go on a bit of a hiatus. It’s clear that the three individuals that make up Wiedgedood live, breathe, sweat and bleed extreme music, and ‘De Doden Hebben Het Goed III’ is the latest result of that fact.
Opener ‘Prowl’ begins with a harrowing scream before the tremolo guitars and relentless double-kick drumming begin their assault. The vocals are shrill and intense, as you’d expect from the genre, and sit nice and low in the mix so as to allow all the other nuances, including some unnaturally low throat-singing, to shine through. Black metal is a notoriously badly-produced genre, but over the last few years bands like this one have been putting more effort into making it sound like it was recorded in something other than a biscuit tin. This particularly shows on the riff heavy ‘Doodskalm’, which layers intricate guitar lines over furious blastbeats before slowing down and channelling the Amenra connection with a hypnotic, post-metal second half.
Whilst Wiedgedood may not exactly be doing anything new with the genre(s) they operate within, it’s impossible to question the quality of their output. The musicianship on show is spectacular throughout, particularly the drumming, although the biggest ‘wow’ moment is the guitar work on ‘Parool’. This closing number shreds so hard that your fast-pointing finger will fall off by the end of its’ six-minute runtime, and you’ll haphazardly sew it back on so you can go again. If black metal isn’t your bag then ‘De Doden Hebben Het Goed III’ is unlikely to be your entry point, but if you don’t need an innovator right now and just want to hear something fast and horrible then you could do a hell of a lot worse.
LIAM KNOWLES