The typical words I would associate with black metal of all kinds do not seem to fit when I attempt to describe Dodsferd’s 9th studio album, ‘The parasitic survival of the human race’. A mix of sturdy riffing, clearly defined instrumentation and somehow structured vocal timings, make, truly gripping, exciting and sincerely different from anything I have heard before. Dodsferd have somehow managed to create a rebellious, ‘fuck you’ sounding album, whilst never feeling overly down or miserable. In fact, at times I felt uplifted by the sound. The band does not want this album to incite a riot, but instead to be your soundtrack during a riot, to give you strength, and by god does it do that. It’s strange how this album can sound so chaotic and yet clean. The vocals are never out of place, they appear in short snippets when the time is right and they are never over or underdone. The instruments do not cling to each other; they stay on their own, very distinct paths and yet maintain the typical black metal sound. The same can be said about the overall song structure. Each section of each song is unique and memorable and yet you still feel as though you are being pushed and shoved from section to section. It’s chaotic but in a nice, pleasing way. You don’t mind that you are being punched in the face because it’s done in such a polite way. Every song is incredibly fast and yet manages to have varied tempos. Of course this variety is made up of various levels of ‘fast’, but it is done in such a way that you can identify the lulls and the high intensity parts of each song.
As this was my introductory album to Dodsferd, I can officially say I am now a fan. I like the variety in their beautiful pile of riffs, from the typical black metal sounding ones, to the hard hitting, ‘in your face’ , punky ones. As far as a themed album goes, this is one of the best I have heard. The inclusion of live samples from the 2012, Greek riots are of course a gimmick, but help to rein in the overall feel and tone of the album so that no matter how powerful the music makes you feel, you are reminded of the very serious and miserable nature of the message present in the album. The lyrics at times can feel immature, but they get the point across, I guess there isn’t many ways to say ‘fuck you’. Finally, each track is unique and each is epic with play times all around the 7 minute mark. The tracks never feel like they are dragging or repetitive despite the constant riot samples being a reminder of repetition and all in all, this is a solid, refreshing black n roll album.