Review by Jeger on July 15, 2024.

Just a real happy bunch here lately… As of late, I’ve been delving deep into the realms of philosophy and of misanthropy through the most precious art of black metal. And as I’ve staggered my way through these bewildering corridors of the psyche, so enraptured by the byproduct of total societal collapse and soul ablaze with the lust of watching it all burn, aroused by the fires of rapture, I become ever more comfortable within the bleakness of existence, so long as it’s incentivized by seeing you suffer as much as I have… Be not sad about our lowly demise but grateful that the charade is over; the fallacy that our existence actually held some kind of meaning. And so deeper still we venture now through nightmarish subconscious mires into the frigid heft of chasmic dread where Switzerland’s ColdCell haunt. On July 29, 2024 ColdCell will release their highly-anticipated fifth LP, Age Of Unreason, via the illustrious AOP Records.

There’s a world of artful black metal outside the realm of hatred and diabolism. And it’s prestigious labels such as AOP, Eisenwald and Naturmacht, whose scrutinizing standards set a practically unreachable bar, whom we have to thank for bands like ColdCell and albums like Age Of Unreason that dredge up Mgła level disdain, all the while as they convey black metal of the cathartic consort. Expect high levels of intensity as emotions are purged to the frantic suspense of every twisted passage. 'Dead To The World' and 'Solidarity Or Solitude' - the former a dreamlike astral projective experience where the seconds tortuously tick to the repetition of overwhelmingly foreboding arrangements. The latter, like a page taken out of Paradise Lost’s playbook, drags along to doom-worthy riffs before lending back to more of those ghostly atmospheric elements that breeze their way through pillaring rhythms and abstract guitar parts; maniacal vocal tantrums tearing vulgarly through an otherwise haunting experience.

Meaningless feat. Ines Brodbeck - a beatnik sort of poetry to this one - entranced and completely lost within its siren-esque allure, aroused into a state of blessed gnosis by her almost witch-like reveling in the spirit of this very unique album cut. A distinct air of class to every element of this record; the kind of elite level prowess that gives contemporary black metal a name worth stating a thousand times as the most meaningful genre of music the world of extreme metal has to offer. And the energy! Like the psychological residue of a million bitter memories creeping through every orifice of your being as the riffs pulsate and despairing vocalizations tear asunder any hope for a better life…

Not much in the way of reciprocal arrangements: choruses, hooks or other catchy parts, more like a strapped in for the duration ride upon bravely traversed pathways through spheres of dread and futility. Yearning for something, anything fruitful only to be disappointed by life’s funny little way of stripping you of everything but an animalistic urge to continue existing for reasons unknown. All of this lain out before us for the taking in. The better portion of an hour spent challenging your natural inclination to want to avoid music like this… Who wants to suffer for the sake of appreciating art? Any black metal person who understands the contrast between what’s miserable, what’s joyful and the truth that one cannot be experienced without the other. Age Of Unreason - a testament to BM’s capacity for encapsulating human emotion like no other genre of music.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10