With a poignant and distinctively peculiar style of BM that could easily be classified as typically Germanic Black Metal, Dystertid practices a very melodic and sometimes acoustic kind of Black Metal, with songs normally relying on despondent, sensitive and almost exclusive folk melodies as the baseline of their structure, don’t depending too much – or anything at all in some cases – on heavier weight or fast rhythms to depart from the starting point of their peculiar proposal of sound, a more thinly delineated and calmly refined genre of Black Metal.
With a very fast-forward decisive posture to distance themselves from the usual proclivities of the genre, Dystertid fuses atmospheric and melodic elements into their sound, creating a very elusive, but calm transcendental ambience with their music, that progressively inhales imperative nuances and aspiringly resonating dream-like states, with the profusion of folk elements, setting up with their tunes desolate unmerciful landscapes, lost in perpetual worlds of fog and dust, easily correlating with their artistic proposal a funereal atmosphere of fear, pain and hope, that melts pagan Germanic folklore, melodic atmospheric dreams and the most painstaking elements of Black Metal, into a perfectly designed soundscape, that gives Dystertid its remarkable uniqueness, daringly infusing local colors and nuances into their work. At the same time, their sound vociferates sincere illusions and cold isolations, destined to set free all inhospitable thoughts that the genuine balance of their music ably renovates, track after track, song after song, and note after note.
Despite all of that, they sound incredibly heavy, furious and symptomatic. Nevertheless, their heavier sound is astoundingly adorned with a very subtle, harmonic and sometimes melancholic beauty. Inclined to a spurious veil of incisive and choleric lust, the sound of Dystertid will make you feel lost in the Black Forest (Schwarzwald), celebrating old tales of Germanic lore, while resting in the philosophy of ancient pagan rituals, looking into the sky, and feeling deep inside your heart the mathematics of the universe.
To listen to Dystertid, specifically to this beautiful Auf Faehrten alter Tage, is to submerge yourself into deep and meaningful inspiration. A remarkable Pagan Black Metal album, with a poetic outfit adorning the melancholy of its beautiful and sensitive melodies, sometimes wandering in the lustful agony of depressive and desolate chords, it is certainly a great Black Metal album. Brilliantly exploring melodic elements, rather than being another simple “blind fury following generic tradition”, Auf Faehrten alter Tage definitely has what it takes to be seriously considered a remarkable and strong exemplar of the genre. A little bit short – being only thirty one minutes long – in Auf Faehrten alter Tage Dystertid manages to be the perfect example of an excellent act capable of correctly inserting on a good old school black metal influenced sound the most stylish and relevant elements of local Germanic culture and folklore. Certainly being a band that deserves our attention, Dystertid manages to be a promising feature on the underground Pagan Black Metal scene, for the years to come. They certainly have the potential. Perfectly equalizing and balancing the most soft, philosophic and despondent side of Black Metal with the more heavier, furious and vengeful elements, this is a band that definitely have it all to win their place on the underground scene. Auf Faehrten alter Tage is an album that really deserves your attention. If you like pagan Black Metal, this is your thing. Beautiful melodies and striking harmonies are waiting for you!