Album Review: Dodengod – Heralds of a Dying Age
Band: Dodengod
Title: Heralds of a Dying Age
Label: Pest Records
Release date: February 28th, 2025
Country: Belgium
Format reviewed: High-Quality Digital Recording
#AlbumReview: Dodengod – Heralds of a Dying Age via Pest Records by Sílvia
Dodengod is a band from Belgium, maybe they are not very known because they belong to the underground realms. This is the place I love the most to explore, there are thousands of little known bands releasing great Metal and they deserve love and attention too. By supporting the underground, we are helping the Metal community to continue alive, to grow even more, to expand in a musical universe where there’s much more beyond a handful of worldwide known big bands…
“Heralds of a Dying Age” is the second full-length album by Dodengod, seven years have passed after their debut “Salvation” and now they are a full band, with the incorporation of a real drummer to do the percussion duties. YvS (guitars, bass) and SvN (vocals, lyrics and also drums programming in the debut album) are no longer a duo since Barduk joined them in 2021 to bring more chaos and destruction to their blackened death metal new offering. And of course… their goal was achieved.
Not only because of drums; after listening to their new album on repeat for several days, my overall feeling is that Dodengod has intensified their sound in many aspects. It’s darker, it’s harsher, it’s an evolution in which they get rid of those doomy passages and some clean chants (and even some emotional stuff, like in “Hewn in Stone”), to focus on a more overwhelming and crushing sound. No more mercy… no time for breathing. Fatality has come to stay.
The way guitars and drums overlap at times (like on “Breathe Deep the Dark”) makes Dodengod deliver a brutal sound, and those raging harsh vocals increase the aggressive feeling. What an impressive wall of sound built on blast beats and rolls, infectious riffs, bestial vocals… What a killer track!
At times guitars are interlocking harmonically in tremolo riffs like twins, other times it’s one guitar maintaining the tremolo playing while the other goes for the rhythmic part and they both are cradled by the lower notes of the bass, and the whole thing sounds amazing. All driven by very energetic drums, and oh those fierce vocals delving into the folds of your brain… Well, just listen to “The Adversary” and tell me…
Usually, drums become a bit too overwhelming, they can sound ultra fast in contrast with the more restrained guitars and I have the impression that they are a bit up front, sounding like a brutal steamroller out of control. Which is not, but for me it’s a bit “too much”. When the percussion is totally adapting to the guitar playing, it’s pure delight, something perfectly balanced… But as you can see these guys’ nicknames are not “delicacy” or “smoothness”, oh no… When this brutal sound made of massive drums and death metal riffs played in a dirty tone are able to silence all the noise in my head, then I think “hell yes!! That’s exactly what I needed!”.
The most impressive vocal performance takes place in “No Distant Flame Ahead”, where SvN shows off his most furious and sinister side. Like a spawn from the darkest abyss, this man rips his throat out with no care, while a skull-crushing soundtrack plays in the background. I’m totally floored.
Great step-up by this Belgian band. 8,5/10
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8,5/10 To Greatness and Glory!
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