Enigmatic black metal entity D.B (Negativa, Hässlig) has returned with Thoughteater, his second album under the Délirant moniker. Mixing nightmare atmosphere with blackened dissonance, Délirant sounds like a fever-dream combination of Andavald and Deathspell Omega with a few dashes of unsettling ambience. The eponymous debut album was one of the kickstarters of the now-recognizable Mystiskaos sound, and Thoughteater is a solid continuation of that. Largely derived from the Icelandic school of black metal, Thoughteater feels like a welcome return to a more paranoid-sounding style of black metal that’s become somewhat of a rare commodity in recent years. This sound is exemplified in “II”, opening with a flurry of ascending, spastic riffs, before coming to a groove interspersed with lead tones stabbing at the listener through the murk. Thoughteater shifts between psychosis-inducing intensity and ominous malice throughout the course of its runtime, and that’s largely thanks to how well it’s put together.
Production is top-notch. This is a claustrophobic sounding record that is one of the few to absolutely nail the vibe of an unseen entity waiting to wound the listener, and I appreciate Délirant a lot more in choosing to take that approach. There are short bursts of reprieve given between each track in the form of gentle bells, but they’re swiftly removed in favor of more subterranean chaos. Normally, vocals tend to not be as big a factor when listening to these kinds of albums, but in Délirant’s case, they do their job well of being indecipherable hellnoises that only add to the omnipresent labyrinthine nature . Despite how much I enjoy it, Thoughteater isn’t perfect. There’s a small but noticeable lack of variation present throughout the record, with a lot of songs sounding very similar to each other, and while the vocals are sinister enough for this style of nightmarish black metal, they could be a bit louder and would pack a stronger punch as a result.
That being said, Délirant have crafted a strong sophomore outing here. Thoughteater is one of the early strong releases of the year, and I can see myself coming back to it time and again before the year is out. This kind of claustrophobic black metal is something that I will always pay attention to, and I’m glad there are more bands picking up the torch and carving their own variation of it into the grand abyss that is black metal. Délirant and their related projects can only go up from here, and with a bit of polish can be a major player in the underground.
