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The Black Command
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If a band is forged from members of obliterating Dutch destroyers Sammath, it’d be a pretty safe bet to say that just about anything they put out is going to fucking kill.
On KAECK‘s 2015 debut album Stormkult, Jan Kruitwagen (flanked back then by messrs Swerc and Ovenmeester Richard) proved that theory and showed once again that the phrase “fucking around” is not in his lexicon, attacking a more standard strain of purely old-school black metal with trademark withering aggression and creating a surprisingly detailed and devastating hidden gem of the underground scene in the process. Now, with that original demoniacal triumvirate slightly switched around and stabilized by fellow cut-throat Sammath legionary Ruud Nillesen on bass/drums and the continuing support of the psychotic Ovenmeester Richard on roars, Kaeck return with Het Zwarte Dictaat to back that debut up and ratchet what they started with up to all new levels of skull-fucking intensity.
If you heard/loved/hated that auspicious debut album, get ready for this second salvo to hit a little differently: Het Zwarte Dictaat straight up punches you square in the fucking guts. Whereas production-wise Stormkult walked pathways aligned with more traditional black metal, this one remains just as diabolically obfuscated as that first statement, but in a much more terrifying and damaging way. The mix/master is bestowed with a more viscous (and vicious) “heart sinking into the pit of your stomach” type low end dread that blankets all proceedings, creating a thick, doomed atmosphere that’s difficult to penetrate and even harder to survive with any semblance of hope left in your body – but when your mind finally crawls through this grievous gloom and begins to take stock of its bearings, you’ll discover that behind this veil is where the sorcery occurs. Miasmic, haunting keys rise and fall in elegaic torment like the moans of the dying as the omnipresent bass rumble draws all colour from your face; ultimate riffs strip skin from flesh at any variety of tempo they see fit to assault you with (and there are shitloads, not only across the entirety of the album but within most tracks).
Far from being your typical “war metal” album, Het Zwarte Dictaat is some truly sinister shit. I really cannot understate the depths that these men draw from and just how fucking negative this album is, it’s just pure darkness – absolutely no light getting in to this one, and the way they’ve managed to assemble it as such is remarkable. Check out monstrous one-two punch of ‘De Kwekeling’ (“The Nursery”, Google translate tells me) and ‘De Kabal’ (“The Cabal”) for proof, and I can almost guarantee you’ll hear few things more harrowing than the final section of the title track ‘Het Zwarte Dictaat’ this entire year. As the album moves on and its relentless waves of aberrant, abhorrent weight grind you inexorably into the dirt, you may find yourself being utterly worn down – but that’s the point. This is not a pleasant listen. There is nothing to save you. All that you will find is total fear and death.
Is there anything wrong with this album? Only that some poor souls will undoubtedly find its bleak brutality and unflinching, unyielding darkness to be not quite their cup of rosy tea, unable or unwilling to live through the oppressive, spirit-crushing atmospheres and structures to appreciate the nuance (and, dare I say it, horrifying beauty) buried within. But that’s fine – fuck ’em. With their second offering, Kaeck have easily topped their debut and summoned a devastation that doesn’t just answer that all important question, but blows it clean off the board: does Het Zwarte Dictaat fucking kill? Yes. Yes it does.
RATING: 4.5 / 5
Het Zwarte Dictaat releases October 29th via Folter Records and Hessian Firm.
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Pre-order Het Zwarte Dictaat on tape via the Hessian Firm webstore HERE or on CD via the Folter Records webstore HERE. Vinyl coming soon.
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