Death and rebirth, new stages in one's life, a clear vision of what the future holds the hand that guides through the greyness that is the unknown. What do we truly know about the end? We merely trust beliefs, whether personal or not, and ancient little when it comes to the end, the act of dying, diminishing forever only to be cremated or buried six feet under. I wonder who will sing for us then? Can a dead person feel the sound echoes of a distorted guitar? Can a lifeless body endure the harshness and untamed wrath of a composer? I don't really think so because as the old song suggests, we are all dust in the wind eventually. Sadly no one can stop that from happening. Therefore all we can enjoy is some tunes for the buried, no requiem but belligerent creations that would infer that someone is mad. DUNDERBEIST from Norway were able to have me thanks to their wickedness and tantrum swaying to the sounds of darkened Hard Rock. With "Songs Of The Buried", once again via Indie Recordings, DUNDERBEIST continue their awkward journey, as a sort of sequel to the previous "Black Arts & Crooked Tails", into darker realms that also share local oriented extreme features that were at first startling but after a second thought those seemed to be right on the spot.

I believe that "Songs Of The Buried" can be examined in two opposite perspectives. The big plus about it is that DUNDERBEIST headed on to explore new territories outside the modern Hard Rock / Metal zones while stepping in the mud baths of their own local extreme Metal scene of frosty Black Metal. Alongside the sound production that kept that cold cutting edge Norwegian feel, especially due to the distorted guitars that time again reminded me of equal orchestrations such as on DIMMU BORGIR and ENSLAVED, which was already there on the previous release, DUNDERBEIST extended their interest and reach towards intense murky riffing (more in a simpler form), energetic blast beats, occasional grinds and thin high end growls just as their local masters have been doing for years. Albeit, and here I am getting to the minus standpoint regarding the band's new inflammations, that new situation also created chaos and confusion among some of the tracks that didn't end up so well and rather contributed to that itchy feeling of annoyance. I really liked that awesome fusion between the grey atmospheric nature conveyed on "Black Arts & Crooked Tails" and the band's new inputs, yet, and probably the production is somewhat to blame as well, that bewilderment I mentioned didn't sound too good and it caused several of the songs as "The Hidden Ones", "Mongrel" and "Forcefed Boar's Head" to display themselves as too murky, too unresolved and very much misplaced from within. In general, the guitars received too much attention while the vocals sunk backwards. It is a bit of shame as Torgrim Torve & Åsmund Snortheim vocal performances really kicked in as their voice pattern integrated in a fine manner. That aspect should have been thought about earlier on.

On the other hand, it is hard to ignore that DUNDERBEIST display a sort of uniqueness through their music. The grim "Centuries" and the powerhouse "Four Of The Seven" enraged with interesting riffing and high octane vocal lines along with other promising ventures as "Acheron" (Row that boat down the stream with the ferryman), "Father Serpent" and the flamboyant "Songs Of The Buried", demonstrated creative soloing and lead guitar melodies, bombastic vocals (when heard clearly of course) and brisk diverse rhythms. Though a bit weaker from its previous epos, "Songs Of The Buried" glances at Death's face trying to understand it. It might be worthwhile for you to have a go with it.