SCHEUSAL - Fressfeind CD

Earlier this spring, SCHEUSAL released their debut album, Urwahn, the so-far-mysterious entity strikes while the iron's red-hot with Fressfeind. Thankfully, not much has changed here on this second full-length. Pure 'n' proud Teutonic black metal is still the order of the day, but just like Urwahn did so stridently, Fressfeind further twists SCHEUSAL's unique iteration of German steel. Maybe going the martial-folkish direction more thoroughly, maybe running routes that are even more restless - whatever headspace you enter Fressfeind, the one-man band goes for the fucking throat, mischievous as ever. Indeed, that apt descriptor encompasses the mainman's vocals again, as the same crew of characters - the screamer, the shouter, the hooligan, the imp, the devil - all fight for breath here on this ever-shifting landscape. That landscape is painted with a production that's raw and rotten and yet somehow crisp and crystalline, making these nine screeds of mania all the more absurdly engaging and antagonizing. Alternately melancholic and triumphant, Fressfeind is the sound of SCHEUSAL on the march!