Zatokrev-The Bat The Wheel and the Long Road to Nowhere

Candlelight Records
2013


This might be the 3rd full-length release from this Swiss band (there has also been a 2003 demo and a 2007 split w/Vancouver released by Zatokrev) , but it's new to these ears. My first instinct was to skip over this one because of that album art. It was simply a case of second guessing myself as I looked over the band's name and the album art. Not only are there deep piles of promos waiting for me on Haulix, but all throughout my inbox and I'm not even going to get into the physical CDs sitting here! So, taking a ride along with any band's promo is dealer's choice anymore (especially since I'm the one hanging around the offices of Heavy Metal Time Machine these days) so this odd one took a back seat for awhile. Here it is the weekend though and the band's style (dubbed "sludge-apocalypse") is staring me in the face. So what if it's all new to me"? Variety is the spice of life and death so this hour long album (which features lyrics sung in English, Czech, and Slovak) was the soundtrack to my life. Or at least it was for a very short while. Now, our good friends over at The Metal Archives say that this Swiss band's name translates to "Blood For This". After an hour spent listening to this mood metal it's fair enough to say that blood could very well be spilled by this band/album if not for this band/album. It was all I could do to keep a level head during this mood-altering, let's go ahead and walk into hell soundtrack. It's rather depressing to say the least. It's sludge/doom/death with black metal rasps. Did I mention how dark and dismal the material is? Well, it's all that and then some. Certainly not the kind of thing you want to listen to if you're just getting over a broken heart or your puppy has died so be warned. Otherwise it's nice and creepy, even sinister really. It doesn't so much crawl toward you as it does ooze. It's all things blacked and ugly for people who like music that's even colder and sadder then doom metal is. If that sounds good then by all means this soundtrack to a nightmare awaits you.