Review by Dominik on October 22, 2024.

In school, there was always that one kid—the class comedian. You know, the one who could crack everyone up but also had a habit of overdoing it, throwing out one too many jokes until things got awkward, making that one comment that should have remained unsaid. Listening to Dødsferd has often felt a bit like that for me. Wrath, the driving force behind the band, isn’t using humor in the slightest—his approach to black metal is as serious and dark as the black coffee my wife sometimes makes (so strong it probably violates some international laws). But still, his music has often carried that same “class comedian” vibe, where everything is in the red and cranked up to eleven. In previous releases, I sometimes got the sense that he was trying a little too hard to be the angriest guy in the room, coming across not just slightly miffed but completely pissed off. He’d throw in some punk influences just to shake things up, making sure you knew he wasn’t like the other black metal bands.

No surprise then, when Wrath (both the album and the man) showed up again, I braced myself for yet another round of over-the-top bitterness – humanity sucks, we know - with a side of punk just for the sake of being “different”. So I wasn’t exactly sprinting to add it to my collection. I mean, with a discography as sprawling as Dødsferd’s, there’s no way to know it all—and frankly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to. But I gave it a chance, and suddenly I’m hit with six pure, unfiltered tracks that don’t try to be anything other than what they are: straight-up black metal, no gimmicks, no unnecessary embellishments. Wrath feels like a sharp, no-nonsense expression of black metal rage. Gone are the chaotic intros of people being violently murdered or the riotous soundscapes that felt like Wrath was trying to out-bleak himself with every release (case in point: 'The Parasitic Survival Of The Human Race'). On Wrath, he cuts that stuff down to the bare minimum, if not abandoning it entirely. The result is a serious album, and it strikes a perfect balance between modern influences and classic black metal tradition.

If you split the album in half, I’d argue that Side A is slightly stronger. 'Raging Lust Of Creation' is a ten-minute beast of a song that combines ferocious black metal with a carefully crafted structure. It hits you with mid-tempo stomps, then drags you through a chaotic middle section, only to surprise you with an ending where Wrath (the man) drops his typical growls and snarls to actually “sing” in his regular, “normal” voice. Ok, singing sounds way too civilized: he is accusing, criticizing, and condemning. It’s unexpected and strangely effective, like when the class clown delivers a line so out of character that everyone goes quiet for a moment. The track builds cleverly, with strong blast beats in the middle, that give way to that more subdued, almost eerie conclusion.

The album opener, 'Restoration Of Justice', is another highlight. The track is a black metal offering that makes me remember why I got into the genre in the first place. Clocking in at over seven minutes, it is fast and relentless, but with just enough melody to keep it from becoming an endurance test. A faint echo lingers in your head long after it’s over. Not like those albums where the only thing lingering is the sound of your own disappointment. And different from my wife’s coffee, this track actually leaves a pleasant aftertaste.

The second half of the album, while still solid, does slightly drop in quality. 'Spiritual Lethargy' and 'Heaven Drops With Human Filth' are both decent enough tracks, full of tremolo riffs and blast beats, but they’re shorter and more straightforward, missing the complexity and surprises of the longer pieces. They’re still very much in the Dødsferd wheelhouse, but it feels a little like “Wrath’s” best material was front-loaded, leaving these tracks to serve as solid, but somewhat predictable precursors to the closer.

Still, Wrath for me is a major step forward for the band. If this is the direction they continue to pursue, I’m more than ready to invest in future releases. For once, it feels like the guy has trimmed the fat and honed in on what Dødsferd does best. Let’s just hope he keeps his balance and doesn’t fall into that classic trap of overreaching. And keeping in mind the band's Greek heritage, let’s hope they don’t pull an Icarus. After all, we’ve all seen what happens when you fly too close to the sun.

Rating: 8 out of 10 — because Wrath proves that even the class clown can grow up… just without losing his taste for destruction.