TAUTHR is a Death Metal band from Germany, a country whose background in extreme Metal fields is very poor and even sometimes funny. Probably this is cause of the big 80s Thrash scene or because of titanic bands like ACCEPT that overshadowed anything else. But here we have a worth mentioning work from something that looks like a project of three ENDSTILLE members. OK, maybe this says nothing special but the fact that this CD comes out from Van Records, a label that has so far impressed us a lot with its roster, surely makes our positive predispose undeniable.

If I am not wrong the band's name means something like 'death' in ancient German and I guess this is indicative of their disposals and of what they want to transfer to their listeners. The words pessimism, melancholy and bitterness are fitting well to "Life-Losing" by using a plethora of musical shapes that remind a lot of Scandinavian bands - mainly AMON AMARTH - without falling into copy/paste tactics. On the other, several analogies with ENDSTILLE may be not unavoidable since as I said above three members are here.

So, their debut, which by the way had to wait for almost twenty years since their birth to release it, we could place it into a melodic Death Metal file together with a few parts that remind a lot of Black Metal bands. When I was listening to them a lot of times my mind was traveling to bands like the first steps of DARK TRANQUILLITY; only that these Germans here are simpler in their compositions. But when I say "simple" I don't mean poor ideas. They have some good times; the vocals are very nice while in some songs the riffing is really inspired. In its beginning "Life-Losing" will drive the listener into a world full of shadows and foul air but - and here comes the negative stuff - while it continues in these atmosphere from one point and after it becomes a little bit tiring. The songs seem same with each other without something special inside and after all this the symptoms of boredom will conquer you. Probably a musical diversity inside "Life-Losing" could make the final result more interesting.