On April 30th internationally, Amor Fati Productions will release Dauþuz’s highly anticipated fifth album, Uranium, on CD and vinyl LP formats (the band will be self-releasing the cassette tape version on the same date). And today, the Black Metal Promotion YouTube channel streams the album in its entirety: Dauþuz – Uranium (Full Album Premiere) (youtube.com)
Since their bolt-from-the-blue debut In finstrer Teufe in 2016, Germany’s Dauþuz have created a rich and vibrant catalog. Their black metal is proud and purist but by no means blinkered; the ancient ways are revered, for sure, but new vistas of the imagination open up when Dauþuz commit their stories to tape. And those stories largely focus on mining, both across their native land and the whole of Europe, further enriching their olde-worlde appeal.
Now, two years after the special Vom schwarzen Schmied: Bergkgesænge – a clean-vocalled version of their widely celebrated fourth album, 2021’s Vom schwarzen Schmied – along comes new curses from the Dauþuz mine in Uranium. Tellingly titled, Uranium deals with a relatively young and destructive area of mining: the former uranium mining in East German areas. From the dangerous mining under the pressure of the Soviets to the radiant, deadly harvest of what was created, the titular Uranium spreads wide a dread landscape full of despair both sonic and spiritual. Despite the seeming „newness“ of subject matter, Dauþuz sound as olde-worlde as ever with their characteristic Mining Black Metal, indeed mining amongst deeper and more ancient caverns of sound and texture; uncompromising and epic and especially melodic, here do the duo exude a desperation (or at least passion) that harkens back to their very earliest roots, with the oft-piercing vocals in particular raising the hackles and firmly driving the point home that Uranium is deadly, deadly business.
Rarely does an aesthetic stay so firmly etched yet yield consistently compelling sagas as it does with Dauþuz. Radiate to the eerie glow of Uranium!
