Album Review: Dödsrit – Mortal Coil (Wolves Of Hades)

From the shadowy desolated woods of Borlänge, Sweden and the rusting urban lechery of Amsterdam, The Netherlands comes Dödsrit, a maelstrom of soul tearing blackness and cacophony.

Dödsrit entered the worldly realms in 2017 as a one-man project of Christoffer Öster, a sole venture that would produce both the self-titled debut in that same year and the subsequent ‘Spirit Crusher’ in 2018. Following this second full-length, the project expanded into a full-fledged group with the addition of three new members, a change that would definitely sharpen the band’s course into the potent force which stands today. 

A concept of misery and suffering, our feeble and dying world is the subject of a new hymn to its demise. ‘Mortal Coil’ is Dödsrit’s third full-length, out under the banner of Wolves of Hades on May 28th, 2021.

4 tracks, 35+ minutes of icy cold and dark black metal with wide-ranging atmosphere and melodious passages. Dödsrit bring the darkness and spread it worldwide. Mortal Coil is a depressing listen but in a profoundly meaningful way. This is black metal with a point, an icy sharp point.

Familiar to those who have history with the Swedish black metal scene, Dödsrit aren’t changing the world with this album. What they’re doing is shaping it in their image. A deformed and malignant image.

Each track is a tome of epic black metal. Epic because, from beginning to end, each is a journey designed to steal the breath from your body. To slow your step and make life’s grind feel ever so hopeless. We’re all just shuffling step by step towards our inevitable end.

This might make it sound like it’s all too much to take. That such weight as brought down by Dödsrit is just unbearable. However, this is layered music with so much more than just unrelenting heaviness to it. Dödsrit’s blend of intensity and atmosphere making for something rather attractive. Each track shifts and changes over time with haunting beauty and impressive clarity. There’s emotional weight, not to the extent where it’s dominating things, but it’s there. It’s just that the ultimate focus of Dödsrit is devastating black metal and it’s one they do so very well.

Misery and suffering, indeed.

Dödsrit – Mortal Coil Full Track Listing:

1. The Third Door
2. Shallow Graves
3. Mortal Coil
4. Apathetic Tongues

Links

Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Wolves of Hades