Lead by German musician, poet and painter Martin Lang, TODESSTOSS (in German, Deathblow) have always been a trapdoor to weird places beyond our common, boring existences. They have walked through the 2000s refusing musical stereotypes in favor of a surreal, lunatic and experimental dark metal language that with Hirngemeer - their 7th and best work to date - finds a perfect balance between the early days depressive black metal tendencies and the more psychotic nature of the last years offerings. Spiritually not so distant from acts like Burzum, Bethlehem, Urfaust or Circle Of Ouroborus, TODESSTOSS use black metal, dark rock and electronic ambient like colors on big canvas, painting a hallucinating scenario of mental ruins. A theatrical stage where their nightmares and fears materialize to perform a tragedy of insanity and despair. Its a Theatre of the Absurd, emphasized by anguishing screams, bizarre lyrics, and black metal riffs menacingly suspended in the air like clouds of locusts, attracted by the cold and primitive dark-wave pulse of the rhythm section. Hirngemeer, a non-existing term made by the German words Gehirn (brain) and Meer (sea), is the spectacle of a mental collapse and decomposition; a barefoot walk on a carpet of shattered mirrors, each fragment reflecting distorted images of the self. In its 3 massive tracks, TODESSTOSS orchestrate an ever-flowing stream of consciousness, juxtaposing frightening black metal and dark electro-rock, the funereal pace of doom and unexpected parenthesis of placid psychedelia that alleviate the tension. Despite some recurring themes and memorable melodies, nothing lasts for long, but everything concurs to a surrealistic, almost metaphysical experience, a disorienting and disturbing bacchanal of conflicting emotions.
