There’s a strong case to be made that January is the most depressing time of the year: it’s dark and cold, no-one has any money, and all the joyous festivities of Christmas and New Year’s Eve are little more than a bad aftertaste. When better to get stuck into some atmospheric black metal than now, then? Austria’s Ellende— the creative outlet of multi-instrumentalist L.G.— has made no attempts to disguise the unending sorrow seeping from his latest record: the album’s title translates to ‘decay,’ after all. For anyone with a box of tissues nearby, the sheer weight of emotion on ‘Zerfall’ is undoubtedly its strongest attribute.

Though Ellende fills his latest release with all the blast beats, tremolo guitars and howling screams you’d expect from your black metal, they rarely feel like the stars of the show: ‘Zerfall’ is an album that lives and dies by its resigned, melancholic atmosphere (and if that really is the case, the record is absolutely thriving). The project is full of surprises, the majority of which present themselves during the LP’s most withdrawn moments— the scattered piano notes and solemn chord progressions of opener ‘Nur’ are hardly just salad dressing, but become staples of the album to come. When the distorted guitars finally come crashing in on ‘Wahrheit Teil I,’ they feel less like the start of the ‘album proper’ and more like the full stop at the end of a profound statement: that is to say, the atmospheric passages across ‘Zerfall’ are as essential as its most intense moments, with both styles lending themselves in equal measure to this agonising listen. 

There’s little distinction made between the track’s mournful acoustic bridge (complete with some chilling backing vocals) and the momentous crescendo that consumes the second half of the song— though the instrumentation on display may be diverse, every element feels equally weighty and memorable. ‘Zerfall’ is frequently an abrasive album, though not one aiming to get you head-banging. Rather, its booming guitars settle into a shoegaze-esque wall of sound where the screeching vocals and desperate percussion feel completely adrift in amongst the organised chaos: though a mix this open and at times undefined would probably grind a more riff-oriented release into dust, the approach works here to invite the listener into Ellende’s post-metal world (a world that appears to be without joy or hope, if the record’s unsettling artwork and tear-jerking themes are any indication). The title track demonstrates how effortlessly even the most minimalist of arrangements can be given presence and gravitas, if presented in the right light— the lonely bass notes and touching piano voicings of its intro feel just as gripping as its blast beats and harrowing guitar parts, and equally emotive to boot.

Those heavier moments can feel somewhat interchangeable in places, admittedly: there’s only so much you can do with distorted open chords, shrieked vocals and unrelenting drum patterns, and we’d probably be hard pressed to tell some of these songs apart from one another because of it. Still, ‘Zerfall’ succeeds because it doesn’t rely on its ‘metal’ textures, but employs them alongside a host of interesting and diverse inclusions. Much of ‘Übertritt’ feels almost meditative, gliding on its gorgeous leading melodies and chanted vocal harmonies— outright sorrow is a feeling Ellende captures masterfully, soaking closer ‘Reise’ in enough resignation to make this a truly harrowing end to the project. In amongst an album this steeped in pain, the isolated guitar intro on ‘Ode ans Licht’ feels like waking from a nightmare, and the comparatively bright tone the song leans into is nothing short of refreshing. Where a lesser writer would coast on trem-picked riffs alone, L.G. constantly finds new ways to spark your imagination. The more traditional metal influences on ‘Zeitenwende’ are nothing short of breathtaking: we could’ve spent this entire review gushing over the chugged guitar patterns that break up this pair of tracks, not even mentioning the truly phenomenal solo closing them out.

‘Zerfall’ is a fantastic album, and one that couldn’t have released at a more perfect time— there’s no better scenery to appreciate these gut-wrenching soundscapes in than the grey skies and barren trees of winter. Ellende has really outdone himself here, crafting a record that doesn’t just sound pained, but passes the burden of sorrow onto its very listeners. Any fans of the genre would do well to immerse themselves in a project this strong, coming so early in the year: the solo on ‘Zeitenwende Teil II’ is worth the price of admission alone.