Album review: REVEAL! – Doppelherz

For REVEAL!, do what thou wilt appears be the whole of the musical law. The closest comparison would probably be the Akercocke-adjacent Voices. Both bands take a black metal base and twist it into absolute knots, but that’s where any direct comparisons end. There are plenty of recognisable elements on Doppelherz, but the way the Uppsala outfit bring them all together sounds like no other band on or below this Earth.

So Cocoon (Bitch Regalia) starts things on a slow burn, with a psychedelic wash framing gnashing, warring guitars. Cokkkfights brings noise-rock and an industrial clatter into the ever more complex equation, before Angel’s Bend threads twisty alt-rock riffs into a slow groove with a sort of mad carnival edge. They’re all linked by an abrasive edge supplied in part by the cracked, feral vocals, but not one song on here sounds very much like its predecessor. The other standard armaments from the black metal arsenal – the blastbeats and icy tremolo riffs – are judiciously deployed for the greatest impact, but they never become the dominant components.

Nor is everything centred purely on aggression and heaviness. REVEAL! revel just as much in creating atmospheric passages and playing with the mood and pace. Mal Aria is a brief interlude of echoing acoustics, while Stalactites (When Cast Down the Mountain) develops from a sparse bass-led beat into a noisy collision of jazzy chords and chaos.

Chaos is certainly a term you could apply to REVEAL!’s fourth album, but it’s all carefully controlled and delivered with absolute precision. Doppelherz is a dizzying and sometimes bewildering album. It’s not the easiest of listens but it is one that’s well worth a visit if you crave the unexpected.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Voices, Absu, Necronautical

Doppelherz is released on December 10 via Sepulchral Voice