Thormesis play a form of gorgeous melodic black metal that has some nods to Taake, but throws in some depressive, emotional somber elements (a black metal Sentenced comes to mind, listen to “One Last Tear for Every Burned Soul” and “Deadened Skies”) that come together to form something pretty awesome when it hits on all cylinders. The balance between blistering but melodic black metal, and more somber, rending elements if perfect here, just listen to opener “Sonnen” with its mournful opening gait which morphs into a wondrously emotive tremelo pick blast beat. The pained howls mix with typically German, austere,  clean vocals, also displaying  the balance perfectly.

From there, the next 6 tracks tread the line between depressive hues and searing melodic black metal with typical German efficiently and clinical precision. Whether its second track “Thy Morbid Drunken Ways” and its dour lope and brilliant mid song Ghostbath ish blast beat through personal favorite “Chor der Toten” (that fucking blast beat at 4:07 is utter black metal perfection, if short lived), to closer, the almost 8 minute, pure despondency of “Deadened Skies”, it’s all  superbly done, every aspect. They can transition so smoothly from despondent, piano laden goth plod to rending, wilting black metal  (“Zeichen zum Grund”), and back (another favorite “Lichtermeer”), it’s often breathtaking.

Thromesis have absolutely knocked it out of the park with The Sixth, so much so, I need to go back and check out Trümmerfarben, to see if I missed something and I was way off the mark on how I felt about it, as this is sooooo good, I’m having a hard time fathoming the disparity.

The vaguely Taake, drearier based riffs, folky/pagan sheen, shrieks, somber clean vocals and oodles of hooky,  hair metal melodic lead work often truly shine as heard on the title track which contains everything I just mentioned into one stunning track , that I just enjoy thoroughly whenever I hear it. The same can be said for “Nosce te ipsum” which has a sort of Sister of Mercy roll mired in the shrill tremolo riffs. And that sort of moody undertone surfaces in many of the songs coming across like a slightly sadder Taake, less crazy Shining mixed with some good old rock n roll.

“Weltenschrei” is another standout with a rollicking somber main riff and a killer mid song acoustic break, but also bears some more urgent black metal teeth. “Luctus Nomus” has a a downright catchy, slightly morose opening riff that’s hard to shake, but  its after that that I go from “this is one of the best albums of the year” to ” I wander what happens if I shot a squirrel with a paintball gun?” and I lose some focus and enthusiasm. And it’s not like the album suddenly takes a drastic turn for the worse with the likes of “Trostlos” or “Wenn der Schmerz dich lobt” as they all have the same structures as the albums early killer tracks, but overall the gleam is a bit duller and the hooks seem a bit less impactful.

Still though, with its clean production, somber gloss and often stupid catchy take on black metal, Thormesis are doing something pretty original within the genre while still keeping within earshot of the over arching style. A very interesting, sometimes superb release that might end up on my year end list depending on my mood.