Review: “Leichen des Krieges” by Duisternis

“Duisternis aims to create atmospheric black metal with elements taken from industrial music with the use of synths and eerie effects. The lyrics focus on the demise of mankind and how people are unable to cope with depression, anxiety, and addiction. The new album itself is based on how the depression and unstable mental minds of people have caused immense suffering and war across the world. We are all vulnerable creatures however when the blackness consumes us, it turns us into monsters that has a chain reaction on the people around us.” ~ Duisternis

A studio project in Black Metal which takes its name from the Dutch noun for “the darkness” (the adjective duister meaning “dark” or “evil and usually secret“), Duisternis serves as a vessel to allow vocalist and multi instrumentalist Chris Howell to create what he calls “music to ease the souls of the wicked”. The third sonic chapter in his journey is “Leichen des Krieges” (or “Corpses of War“), a sophomore album which is no doubt going to be as bleak and as harrowing as his previous works “Relapse Into Submission” and “Unity Unto None”.

Atmospheric introduction piece “Unrest” sets the scene for the album with what sounds like a jailer laughing at chained prisoners as whispered prayers go unanswered, the industrial throb underneath it all offering a glimpse at the evil to come. Nothing can however prepare you for the Industrial Black Metal insanity that is “The Ring” however as Howell seeming takes influence from the likes of Zebadiah Crowe and rewrites hell’s soundscape in eerie and unsettling sounds. Programmed drums shatter the cranium in pulverising fashion as the dark vocals whisper and scream horrors, the racing down tuned guitars offering fleeting respite as the discerning listener grips the pillow tight. After that white knuckle ride of nightmarish visions “Watching As The World Crumbles To Dust” begins to distantly echo Mortiis with powerful almost supernatural sounds coming home to roost. Tremolo picked guitars rise from the ashes of the electronics as Hewell’s creepy vocals leave a bitter state in the mouth, this vicious onslaught a reminder of what true evil and occult ritual sounds like to the unindoctrinated. A warped melody doesn’t hide the blood and thunder of “A Bitter Release“, the screamed shrill vocals of the opening verse as fierce as anything Howell has ever put his name to. If you’ve ever wandered what a bad acid trip might be like, put this on your headset on Friday 13th at midnight and watch the creepies crawl out from the darkness to set this world ablaze. There are a few left turns here too with an almost ethnic bridge and some melodic female vocals to add something haunting, the depth and texture of the sound as immersive and captivating as it is dark and evil.

The cold industrial sounds of “Beneath The Gravel” is the kind of thing that Tribe Of Ghosts guitarist Adam Sedgewick produces with his project Noiseboy, offering a little respite from the intensity of what came before it while equally leaving you to wonder what lurks just around the corner. Both eerie and unsettling, this could be a transmission from an alien spieces on a distant planet for all we know. The slow, solemn ringing of a bell to announce the death of humanity introduces “SIN” before a return to scalding vocals and racing Black Metal guitars as Howell turns his hand to a seven minute surpassing sonic abrasion that burns like wire. Schizophrenia beckons as the descent into madness turns to whispers and echoes before rising again to melt the max wings of icarus in the light of the burning sun to send him to his inevitable death on the rocks. The churn and burn of the mid section is as pulsating as it gets with quirkly melodies underneath the sonic weight of the electronics rising to the surface in nuance with each repeated listen. Changing direction like the twist of a knife “The Pit” offers mid tempo trudge through the void of souls, each ghost screaming for mercy as the song plays out. Bleak and cold and yet with a firey warmth from the scorn of the vocals, this one is arguably the albums most compelling, evidencing the horror that Howell has become capable of creating. By way of contrast “Forced Into The Fire” feels more driven and determined, bringing the Black Metal guitar work sharply into focus while paying homage to some of those classic second wave bands. If you can imagine what getting trapped in the mind of Saw author Leigh Whannell might be like then you can imagine “Phase Shift“, a cut which moves between seemingly random background sounds while conjoining abstract elements. If the earlier moments of this one don’t cause your brain to bleed then the melody that it closes with may leave you rocking back and forth in the corner of a dark room, waiting for someone with a straight jacket to come along and take you to the asylum.

Barren and bleak “As The Child Weeps” has at its heart what sounds like a distorted female vocal pattern to introduce the sounds of madness to a dark tale which has almost whispered chanting to leave you swaying like a marionette. The sonic textures shift like the sands of the Sahara desert in the prevailing winds as this one plays out, the voices calling to the dark lord in ancient ritual. After those abstact sounds and avant-garde leanings “Blight” is almost refreshing in its more straightforward approach in Symphonic Black Metal. The guitars are as blisterning as the drums are pummelling, making you wonder if you been zapped into something by a different band. Then comes “The Will“, a shorter, faster sonic abrasion that manages to have all of the atmosphere despite clocking in at a mere 106 seconds. A fine example of a tune that could have easily been expanded upon but was instead laid to rest, it hits like a shovel headed killing machine. Taking the essence of everything that Disternis stands for “With Summons” is a grand finale of epic proportions, an eight minute surpassing composition that reaches meditative new heights before smashing the clock in fear and violent anguish.”Leichen des Krieges” by Duisternis is the thing that should not be but now it has escaped from Pandora’s box it can never be returned so be warned, something wicked this way comes, listener discretion is advised [8/10]

Track Listing

1. Unrest
2. The Ring
3. Watching As The World Crumbles To Dust
4. A Bitter Release
5. Beneath The Gravel
6. SIN
7. The Pit
8. Forced Into The Fire
9. Phase Shift
10. As The Child Weeps
11. Blight
12. The Will
13. With Summons

“Leichen des Krieges” by Duisternis is out 23rd January 2026 and maybe available over at bandcamp