Alkerdeel’s music has always proven to be an acquired taste, with its emphasis on equal amounts of fast, primitive riffs that pulled from second-wave black metal and much slower and methodical doom. For their fourth album Slonk the band has once again remained unpredictable, initially suggesting that listeners are about to see a slightly more atmospheric side of them before pummeling them into submission with some of their most direct attacks yet. It’s the type of material that thrives on repeated passages and hypnotic blast beats that only briefly let up, and while that is once again likely to appeal to a specific sub-set of metal listeners Alkerdeel has pulled it off quite well.
What’s fascinating about Slonk is how significantly the first song differs from the other three. Rather than the immediate harshness and nightmarish atmosphere that kicks off Lede, “Vier” begins with much softer instrumentation that has a much mellower and mysterious tone to it and suggests we might soon be experiencing a completely different side of Alkerdeel. From these sparser beginnings the instrumentation builds into methodically paced instrumentation where much darker textures ebb and flow over an abrasive base, bringing bands like Celeste and Amenra briefly to mind. But only five minutes or so into this thirteen-and-a-half-minute track the tempo picks up significantly and you’re met with that familiar wall of blasting drums and jagged guitar and bass riffs. The merging of the rawer black metal with haunting and twisted doom works incredibly well, and there’s a directness to the songwriting that transitions away from some of the group’s earlier drone experiments. Once you’ve finished listening to “Vier” and “Eirde” begins Alkerdeel rarely lets their foot off the gas for the rest of the album, stripping away some of the unsettling calm and slower breaks in favor of unhinged fury. Each of the remaining tracks weaves itself around a particular riff, letting some punk edges to the rhythms and the occasional quick burst of melody seep in for good measure. It’s an approach that brings the repetition and simplified approach of both Ildjarn and Hate Forest to mind along with a continued dose of earlier Darkthrone, though the denseness of the recording makes Slonk distinguishable from these acts. The hypnotic blasting and simplicity of the construction might not click with all listeners, but those that have an appreciation for black metal that bludgeons with reckless abandon will find a lot to like here.
One element that remains relatively unchanged from Alkerdeel’s past material is the hellish screaming of vocalist Pede. His screams have always had a bit of a possessed feeling to them that contributed significantly to the rawness and noise level of the band’s music, and that is once again the case throughout Slonk. Even during the slower, haunting bass lines and tenser melodies of “Vier” his screams seem to cut through your speakers in a blood curdling fashion, and this only becomes more prominent when the band transitions into more straightforward black metal. The unhinged nature of the performance brings to mind a number of the more violent bands from the second wave of black metal, and that adds to the appeal.
Slonk simultaneously offers some of the darkest melodies Alkerdeel has ever written as well as some of its most direct and hypnotic songs to date. The drone elements have been dialed back in favor of worship of the blast beat and rawer edges that will pummel you into madness. How much you’ll get out of this album will likely depend on whether the more deliberate repetition of black metal like Ildjarn and Hate Forest appeals to you, but for the right type of listener there’s a lot to appreciate, barbed wire and all. Slonk is available from Consouling Sounds and Babylon Doom Cult Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg
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