While there are no bad Endstille records, none of the German black metallers’ eight full-length albums, Kapitulation 2013 included, can rightly be called game-changers. This can be explained conceptually; to go along with the ongoing wars of modern times theme, the music’s like a simple soldier’s tinned food ration that literally does what it says on the tin.
Once you accept that, there’s plenty to exclusively enjoy: bestial BM that perversely delights with Nazi speech samples yet keeps one off the hook with outspoken anti-fascism. The song Sick Heil (nice touch!) offers the line ‘Your Adolf or Christ will never lead me,’ simultaneously positing the band firmly within black metal lore, and separating it with no stuttering from the NSBM movement.
The visual and textual world Endstille inhabit finds affinity with crust, another welcome crossover. Still, a band stirring more discussion on content rather than music is often simply not good enough. Thankfully, Endstille’s orthodox BM is executed in the same efficiency of scorched earth policy. Bonus: an awesome Sodom cover!
