PopHorror Let's Get Scared
The award for one of the most offensive band names ever has got to go to German’s Begging For Incest. Personally, I think the group’s name is definitely a conversation piece, especially if your mom or wife or whoever asks you which band your listening to and you roll Begging For Incest off your tongue. Wearing one of the band’s shirts to your local grocery store is sure to get a few raised eyebrows as well. Thankfully, this death metal band’s logo is pretty much indecipherable, so at least there’s that. On October 21, 2016, the band had released their most recent album, Finsternis, and I just had to review it for PopHorror.
While doing some research for this band besides listening to this album, I also stumbled upon an article on the band written on The Encyclopaedia Metallum AKA The Metal Archives. It was a written review for their debut EP, the misogynistic Awaiting The Fist, which depicts a close up of a beaten and battered women’s face whose obviously dreading the fist of the individual about to pummel her some more. The review goes on paragraph after paragraph on how the band is a talentless waste of space and the funny thing is, this review it goes on forever. I can understand someone’s dislike for a genre of music, but to call Begging for Incest the worst band ever and is futile and pointless. In the realm of brutal death metal, these guys are pretty damn good. If you hate a band, then don’t listen to them. It’s as simple as that. If you hate a style of music, don’t listen to it. My point is this: why would you waste your time talking about something you hate so much?
It’s no lie that a lot of these bands dabble in questionable subject matter, sometimes involving the abuse of women. Hell, one of my favorite brutal death albums of 2017 comes from a band is simply called Abuse. The band members are talented musicians and probably even have girlfriends or wives, but they use music as an outlet to blow off some steam. Some men hunt, kill and eat animals. Some men work out until the veins throb out of their heads. And some men listen to brutal death metal. That being said, I do not and never will condone the physical or emotional abuse of women. However, I will continue to listen to and watch messed up shit, because that’s how I blow off steam.
Finsternis (which simply means darkness in German) is Begging For Incest’s second full length effort and sees the band take a much more stripped down approach to their style of uncompromising brutal death, putting down the more misogynistic sensibilities and going for the higher ground of more morbid and dark content. What drew me into this release first and foremost is the cover art. It reminds me of more black metal style bands such as Darkthrone, and the art definitely gets high points from me as it’s equal parts sinister and beautiful, all rolled into one. I’m sure the band will receive hate from old school fans who love their previous works and are languishing in the fact they went a different direction with the content for Finsternis.
Clocking in at 30:43, there are ten tracks in total on Finsternis, with Maximilian Dederichs on drums, Jan Steinbach on guitars and Meik Grziwa on vocals. This band crushes your gonads in a vice until you pass out or die from blood loss. Funny thing is, they actually have a song titled “Crushed Testicles Smeared With Excrement” on their EP. Released on Rising Nemesis Records, Finsternis begins with an atmospheric and groovy instrumental opener titled “Awakening In Nothingness,” and after this moody piece, the listener is thrown full tilt into a headlong assault with “Apathetic Loss Of Dignity” where the blast beats and guitar licks reign supreme. The breakdowns on “Apathetic Loss” are incredible, and after the instrumental, this opener is probably one of the strongest songs on Finsternis. My other favorite song on this release is “Induced Decay,” due to its sheer intensity and crazy tempo changes throughout.
There is also an instrumental closing song titled “Endless Void,” which is similar to “Awakening In Nothingness” but with a slightly different tempo. This is a nice way to close the release. Including the intro/outro, the eight tracks are intense slabs of brutal, unrelenting and punishing brutal death metal with a sometime doomy feel. and even incorporates some black metal stylings. These vocals are different than previous releases by being guttural but with an absence of the gurgling, pig squealing-style which was used on Orgasmic Self Mutilation. Finsternis is definitely the band’s tightest, most mature and brutal work to date. It comes highly recommended for those who crave a little something more from their brutal death offerings.
