An EP a day keeps the doctor away, that’s what I always say. I’ll take a sweet twenty-minute EP over a bloated hour-long behemoth that goes nowhere for eternity. Wouldn’t you know it? El Jefe sent me a tidy, four-track EP from a Northern German collective known as Urzikel.
Honestly, that’s about all I know about them. Metal Archives is dry as fuck, therefore no help at all and the press kit was a bit slim, other than to tell me that some of the members played in a band called Toadeater, which doesn’t help me at all because I’ve never heard of them either.
Fortunately for everyone involved, In Selbernin Sprachen is a goddamn punch in the spleen. Raw? Oh hell yeah, this is raw as it gets without being four people in a basement with a four-track, and that’s only because the production is fucking spectacular, as is the exquisite cover art.
It’s the music that brings us together today, however. Straight out of the gate, there’s a sublime rumble as “Niebo I Ziemia” comes on with light keyboards and then… BOOM! With a roar, the blast kicks in, and immediately you’re swept up in the maelstrom; a volatile mix of Istapp and Blackbraid with some Lamp of Murmuur elegance. But this is a Raw Black Metal assault; where do these guys get off making a melodic, atmospheric… Raw Black Metal album? Urzikel don’t need your fucking permission! There’s a pervasive riff that propels the track forward at sonic speed, and even when the band is thrashing along in between vicious blasting, that main riff is there, ripping a hole in the fabric of time.
“Himmlischer Funke” is up next and it’s just as relentless, but here we get some raging female vocals that are absolutely crushing. There’s also oodles of emotion in this track, and that feeling leaks into the next track “Heiliger Kreis”, which is about as close to DSBM as Urzikel get. The first half of the song is, indeed, a bit on the depressing side of the coin. There’s this killer, reverb-laden riff that twists on itself while the blasts are swirling like a swarm of murder hornets. I get those Istapp vibes again and they’re totally welcome.
“Król Duch” blazes a fiery trail over a nightmare hellscape. The shouted vocals add a primal level to the music. Urzikel has created a fucking masterpiece, raw yet fully fleshed out. In Silbernen Sprachen is so good that it might be making me rethink my Year End List.
I cannot urge you enough to go get this angry sonofabitch. If you love Istapp and Endstille, hell, even Mystic Circle, then Urzikel is the drug you’ve been searching for.
