Beats and yelling: Kaeck

Gruwelijk Onthaal
Out 18^th September on Folter Records

It’s been ten years since Kaeck’s debut ‘Stormkult’. Where that album consolidated an austere reading of early second wave black metal into an aggressive, tight, yet atmospheric celebration of the genre, subsequent releases have – at least aesthetically – dramatically deviated from this foundation. 2021’s ‘Het zwarte dictaat’ leant into war metal trappings, bolstered by rich orchestration and longform riffing that gave the album an emergent cinematic, narrative quality despite the explicit minimalism.

And now we see the continuation of this idea on the latest offering, ‘Gruwelijk Onthaal’. The immediate impression calls to mind early Finnish material in the likes Belial, or Impaled Nazarene on Valium. The hyperactivity of war metal is forced to walk through treacle, as each blistering riff works itself out tortuously in gradualist, anxious developments, suggesting an implied power, restrained aggression, the dramatic import of which is far more effective for the fact that it remains implied, a latent threat not yet manifest. One can feel the muscles tense with the start of each track as it purports to hold back a tide of chaos lurking behind the achingly laboured riffing.

Simple synth lines accompany the majority of the chord progressions, adding a degree of obscurantist mysticism, supplementing the base nihilism spearheading the music. This works to connect this material to the world building aspirations of early black metal. Suggesting size and naïve wonder through a more convoluted, ambiguous web of implication rather than explicitly spelling it out for the listener. The final statement is always more than the sum of its parts.

Kaeck’s previous efforts were remarkably linear, offering direct but creative runs of dark, austere extreme metal. ‘Gruwelijk Onthaal’, by contrast, achieves a broader synthesis despite its short runtime. The early endeavours of Northern European black metal are bent back to their original grounding in minimalism. But far from this being a simple case of stripping the music back to its rudiments, a self-imposed creative limitation is seized upon as an opportunity to reacquaint this genre with its ability to convey size, scope, and mystery within its limited material confines. Just as chess creates a world of possibility through the very limitations it imposes on each piece, the borders Kaeck impose on themselves grants them access to expressive possibilities shut off to more excessively elaborate artists.

Death metal works as antagonist to this endeavour, seeing early Emperor riffs collide with the destructive, staccato anomie of atonal percussive barrages, the quest for spiritual meaning is thwarted by a seemingly illogical material reality. This achieves something of a synthesis on the finale to ‘De ijzeren hand van het benedenwaartse’, that sees the rhythm section lean into stop/start hardcore punches offset by flowing, melodic guitar lines. A contrast that continues neatly into the intro to the following track ‘Bloedend verraad met ontvleesde hand gesmeten’, which opens with a surprisingly bright, fluid interpretation of euphoric black metal before collapsing once again into barbarism. Vocals complete the picture with gruff, aggressive barks and uncontrolled outbursts. A controlled spoken word narration offset by primal screams, the animalistic impulse contending with the brute mundanity of its physical reality. 

The music of Kaeck is, in every sense, not entry level. Formed by musicians with many years experience within extreme metal, writing music that both commentates on specific traditions in the genre whilst developing new expressive ranges within it. But where Kaeck draw on earlier material and where they break with it are hardcoded into the DNA of the music itself, not bolted on as an aesthetic flourish or the occasional signalling riff. This partly comes from the fact that the music, even at its most bipolar, presents as a united front. Fungus growing off the rich soil of persistent rhythm guitar threads, guiding the music through a series of dark chambers, each offering a unique and complementary experience. A continuation of second wave black metal at the molecular level that will satisfy listeners keen to dig beneath aesthetic fanfare even as the majority of metalheads continue overlook this underrated act.