Vermisst - Zmierzch stalowej ciemności

VERMISST - Zmierzch stalowej ciemności (FALLEN TEMPLE - CD 2020)

Vermisst is another band, which I had a pleasure to get to know recently, thanks to Fallen Temple, who released their first EP "Zmierzch stalowej ciemności". It was enough to take one look at the artwork and design of the digipak, to guess what sort of music will Vermisst deliver. But it is not a complaint, as I really like this traditional black metal aesthetics, with a minimalistic layout, black / white colouring and image, which could remind you bands from the 90's. It always looks great. 

Vermisst music also sounds a lot like 90’s second wave of black metal, as it often reminds me older Norwegian bands such as Emperor, Dimmu, Enslaved, Satyricon... but from their very early efforts, like demos or debut albums, when they had the harshest and coldest sound. On the other hand, the music could be easily compared to old Polish black metal efforts from Graveland. And two keyboard tracks have an obvious similarity to Burzum's ambient albums. All in all, you'll find here two ambient tracks and three pure black metal pieces, which I quite liked, to be honest. I like that Vermisst sounds so much like mid 90's band, that they have the same grim, cold atmosphere and the music isn't infected with any modern influences. It all sounds very harsh, riffs are simplistic, but it sounds great when keyboards accompany them all the time, as it even deepens the dark aura of the music. Sure, Vermisst doesn't do anything new nor they are as good as bands from the 90's were. But it doesn't change the fact that this EP sounds absolutely cool and tracks like "W pozagrobowej przestrzeni" are great to hear. Probably the worst part of Vermisst music are vocals, I think that they ruin the final effort a little bit, not only because their sound is not the best, but also because they are little bit too loud to the rest of the music. Other than that, I have no big complains. Good EP, worthy project, definitely worth to check out. Don't expect revelations, but just solid 90's like black metal. 

Standout track: "W pozagrobowej przestrzeni" 

Verdict: 70/100