May I Suffer

When Saturn, the only member of Schlammblut from Germany, in order to send me his release and told me that it will be released by Depressive Illusions Records, he got me thinking. The releases that I have listened to by this record label, almost all of the were garbage. My fears became even more intensive when I listened to the intro track of May I Suffer, an EP that was released in September of 2016 and it contains seven tracks of about sixteen minutes. The cd that I received has two extra tracks, one of which is a track with lyric borrowed by Immortal and the other one is an older recording. So, by finishing the short, drone, ambient introduction, already disappointed for the sixteen minutes that I was about to lose by listening to this album, the second track began. To my great and pleasant surprise, I was listening to real music. In this album, we come across Black Metal inspired by a lot of different musical styles.

Firstly, the first two tracks will recognize heavy influences by punk sound and structure. Melodic riffs, repetitive, with rhythmic drums and fast passages. Like that the following songs continue to set the scenery, but also showing their influences by heavy, dark Doom, by Motorhead as also by the traditional Scandinavian Black Metal sound. The feeling that rule and coloring the different styles that the band mixes into its tracks is melancholy, disappointment, sometimes depression and some other times anger. In some parts, the claustrophobic sound will deliver successfully, the feeling of panic and disturbance to the listener. The tracks are quite short and some of them give the impression that they were never completed. However, they are not tedious for the listener who can listen to the album three and four times in a row with the same pleasure.

The instruments are played well and with much passion. The guitars are the ruling instrument, they mainly have dirty, Motorhead – punk sound, but without missing also the clean parts. Their depressing melodies are presented in a very vivid way so the listener can experience all the feelings that the artist wants to express. The bass is dirty and it is not quite audible, something that it is visible to the final result which has not enough depth. The drums come from a drum machine, something that didn’t bother me as their sound is neither bad nor it sounds dummy. Although its lines didn’t avoid to become repetitive, generally its programming is quite good. The vocals are harsh, demonic Black Metal vocals and they have quite good performance. The production is dirty and somehow flat, something that lowers a lot the value of the tracks and whatever they could offer. The mixture is balanced, highlighting the guitars. The lyrics are not contained into the album and they are written in English.

The first effort of this new band from Germany, although I can’t say that it impressed me, but surely, I can’t say that it is bad. It has a lot of interesting parts, it offers intensive sentiments and it creates a dark and thick atmosphere quite well. The artist could have developed his ideas a little more so that the compositions not to give the impression of uncomplete. Also, the production is not good enough for the tracks as it is not giving depth at all and it makes them sound quite flat. Those of you who love the dirty punk, Motorhead sound, mixed with intensive Black Metal elements and a lot of melancholic feelings, listen to this album. Anyway, it is a very pleasant listen.