Over the past ten years or so the Dutch black metal scene has exploded in terms of both the number of bands and variety of musical styles on display. While you still had plenty of the old guard from the mid-90s and early 2000s releasing consistent material on a regular basis, a lot of newcomers emerged around the 2010’s and moved from initial exploration of traditional and atmospheric black metal into vastly different territory. Fluisteraars has been one of the more consistent Dutch groups over the years, and while they haven’t thrown quite as many curveballs as peers like Iskandr or Laster the duo of Bob Mollema and Mink Koops has shifted over time. Early on their albums emphasized a rawer and darker tone that had a lot of power behind it, but 2020’s Bloem injected a lot more melody and emphasis on hypnotic riffing. 2021’s Gegrepen Door de Geest der Zielsontluiking came through like a fusion of old and new, offering shriller melodies and entrancing atmosphere alongside murkier and abrasive tonality. After those two albums Fluisteraars would experiment a bit more, releasing a trilogy of shorter EP’s themed around local fortress ruins and the surrounding landscape as well as an ambient/drone album that stripped away all the black metal. These experimental releases left long-time fans wondering where the duo would go next and if the black metal would return, and this year’s Jacht der Mysteriën reveals the answer to be a triumphant yes.
Considering Fluisteraars’ history, the return to black metal doesn’t come without changes in approach and other experimental elements. Jacht der Mysteriën contains three lengthy arrangements, and rather than Mollema and Koops enlisting session help to finish things off this time around the material was written and recorded with a full lineup in mind and captured in a single take (Bezwering’s N. de Witon drumsand Dystopia’s Thomas Cochrane on bass). The band then took that recorded output and reamped it through the hollow cylinder of an abandoned water tower, which has contributed a lot of additional effects and a more mysterious tone to the finished product. On the writing front, each of these songs contain all the elements one would expect from a Fluisteraars album, meaning each passage stretches on for a decent period of time and the way that repetition is used creates a powerful and hypnotic sound. By itself the band’s mastery of tension and build-up would make these compositions stand on their own, but “Grondeloos Donkere Bossen” makes it clear just how the reamp approach and additional effects have transformed the sound when compared to the band’s past discography. You’ll find yourself lulled into a trancelike state by the waves of guitar, bass, and drums, and then suddenly a reverberation or what sounds like an ambulance or other street noise from outside the water tower will break through. It’s not unlike the field recordings that black metal artists like Yellow Eyes utilized on their material, but the way things break through here create more of a psychedelic and mysterious tone, as the effects have this sense of familiarity but you can never quite make out exactly what each one is. “Condities der Afstraffing” brings back some of the brighter melodies and more triumphant sounds of Bloem, while closer “Zwarte Zomermaan” spends a decent amount of its run time exploring ambient textures similar to 2024’s Manifestaties van de ontworteling. That could be a hard sell for those who weren’t into the direction of that album, but I found the way the black metal fades into the droning field ambient and field recording approach works well and it doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Bob Mollema’s raspy screams have remained a consistent aspect of Fluisteraars’ music since their inception, and while there are differences in some of the pitches and cadences the core sound hasn’t shifted that much. This isn’t a bad thing though, as there’s a noticeably rawer and aggressive edge to Mollema’s performance that has always enhanced the amount of intensity and power to the band’s music and that is true on Jacht der Mysteriën. Even as the band hits listeners with dense layers of abrasive riffing and bursts of sound effects that explode out of your speakers, the screams always remain audible and sometimes sound like they’re breaking free of the wall of sound in ways that command your attention. It’s an approach that Fluisteraars has really refined over the course of their discography, and there’s a level of precision to the attack that continues to work well.
You can hear some of the spontaneity that has resulted from the full band and single take approaches on this album, but the core emphasis on repetition and layers of hypnotic riffs that are both melancholic and aggressive remains intact. The recording process and the additional sounds and effects that resulted from it also transform this from your typical black metal effort into something a bit more psychedelic and abstract, and it keeps Fluisteraars’ music feeling fresh even after six albums. They remain one of my favorite bands to have emerged from the Dutch scene and only seem to get stronger as the years go on. Jacht der Mysteriën is available from Eisenwald.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg