Dodecahedron Embrace All Darkness on ‘Kwintessens’

Dodecahedron is a band out of the Netherlands that plays forward-thinking, but still firmly throat-slashing black metal. Today the band is premiering their new record, Kwintessens, their first since 2012's crushing self-titled effort. Since they've been gone, the five-piece has clearly fixated on how to make their music more menacing. The LP starts off insane, "Prelude" not wasting any time in welcoming the chaos — guitars and drums collide to sound like a million trainwrecks at once. Things begin to become more recognizable with "The Culling of the Unwanted From the Earth," with its swarm of hornet-like guitar work leading into off-time melodies and noise samples.

The band takes black metal staples, like tremolo-picked riffing, and subverts them, making them part of the song's character rather than its core on "Tilling the Human Soil." There are slight gasps of hope to be had, however, "An Ill-Defined Air of Otherness" allowing its machine of heaviness to fall apart, melting into an airy and beautiful atmosphere before it starts back up, even more emotionally crushing than before. This is a record imbued with many different types of darkness, intent on pushing its genre forward and building a strong, musical narrative.

Hear Kwintessens in full below, and pre-order from Season of Mist.