Purity Through Fire announces March 3rd as the international release date for Scheusal’s striking debut album, Urwahn, on CD format.
So far mysterious, Scheusal are a substantial newcomer to the proud tradition of Teutonic black metal that Purity Through Fire has fostered. The one-man band’s debut album, Urwahn, comprises 10 songs in 35 minutes, putting forth a unique spin on that German steel. In one sense, the martial-folkish thrust that’s come to earmark so much modern German black metal – a banner raised by the incredibly prolific Mavorim – is accounted for here, and compellingly so. In other sense, there’s a rabid ’n‘ restless feeling that favorably reminds of the malformed fields of Mütiilation’s millennial work. Compounding the latter is Urwahn’s production: raw and rotten and yet somehow crisp and crystalline, letting the latent filth freely wash over you as each mischievous stomper kicks into various gears. And indeed, „mischievous“ is an apt descriptor of Scheusal, for the mainman’s vocals range various characters – the screamer, the shouter, the hooligan, the imp, the devil – that impart a particular type of madness that’s seemingly just beginning to boil. Or, perhaps the title itself says enough: Urwahn, or „primal madness“ in English!
