### Terdor: Aris panzerug anno november 1942

#### 13/06/08 || Euthanatos

“Cold Raw War Black Metal with insane Atmosphere Military drum, Hateful vocals, a perfect mix between the old school and Terdor style not a copy of another band! Anger pain and despair of War!”

That’s what the label site says about Dutch black metal fiends Terdor. Sounds scary, eh? Yeah, I nearly pissed my pants. Since I’m in a good mood, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say I’ll actually believe what they say. Let’s see. From the album cover and the first track, “Into the Trench”, which is basically an intro with some chords and war sounds, it’s pretty obvious these guys revolve around World War II. “De Trollenoorglog”, whatever the fuck that means, is the first actual “song” off this record, and it’s very raw, primitive, cruel black metal. It sounds very Norwegian, in the sense that it it’s impossible to listen to it and not imagine frozen lands.

Sure, it’s only natural that the band and the label will try and convince us that Terdor is unique, but well, they aren’t. There’s a lot of early Darkthrone, Mayhem and Mütiilation here. As usual with black metal bands, there are only two members, Lafawijn, who screams like his brains are coming out of his nose, and Elshschappij Tovenaere (now that’s a great name), who plays guitars, bass and drums. For one guy doing all the instruments, he’s a pretty solid player all around. Not that raw black metal is that demanding, but still, this stuff is not amateur at all.

Of course, I have no idea what Lafawijn is talking about on this album. He could be praising the Netherlands’ role on the war, he could be hailing the Nazis and white pride worldwide, he could be saying my mother is a whore. Well, as long as he’s screaming it like this, I have no qualms as to what his message exactly is. As a little bonus, there are multiple sound bytes from war movies and the like. Shots, shouting, screaming, all can be heard throughout the album. I thought it was all pretty neat, particularly on the song “World War Propaganda”, with its slower pace. And, proving that not all is rage and fury in the military black metal world, there’s a sweet song called “Trench Love” as well. Aw.

There’s nothing new here, nothing revolutionary, but even being quite distanced from black metal releases for a while, it’s good to see quality shit is still being released in Europeland.

The cover: Nothing original, a World War II era picture. It happens to be a pretty badass picture though, so that’s okay.

6 Dutch psychopaths that will send me death threats out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Thor’s Hammer
- Website: Terdor MySpace
- Band
- Lafawijn: vocals
- Elshschappij Tovenaere: guitars, bass, drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Into The Trench
- 02. De Trollenoorlog
- 03. Amgedpha No More
- 04. World War Propaganda
- 05. Weemoed In Het Antieke Woud
- 06. Trench Love
- 07. Out Of The Trench
- 08. War
- 09. Pantsertrein