Review PERISH ‘The Decline’

“Less is more”, this is how one could describe the debut album of Perish. Each of the six songs of the album ends on ‘less’ and also concerning the harsh black metal the focus is on diabolic hardness instead of escalating passages.

If you have been wondering since the end of Misery Speaks if Janosch Rathmer and Florian Füntmann still have a passion for untamed metal, you will get the answer on ‘The Decline’. The two musicians are known to most of you as drummer and guitarist of Long Distance Calling. The post rockers enjoy steadily growing popularity for years and it was the pandemic that gave Füntmann and Rathmer time to dedicate themselves to their blackened passion.

Musically, the debut album shows cross references to Swedish black metal, which is not entirely out of the blue. If it was the Swedish loneliness of the seemingly endless forests that led musicians to transform isolation into musical expression, it is in this case the isolation of a pandemic that needed to be channeled.

‘The Decline’ was therefore not planned in a long hand, but emerged spontaneously and out of the context of a pandemic. The trio has a well-stocked musical toolbox which they use and which manifests itself in the length of the tracks to begin with. Between six and ten minutes, that is the range in which Perish feel at home. Without losing themselves in their own ambitions, the guys manage to generate a dystopian atmosphere. For this, calmer and atmospheric elements are utilized, as well as frenzied black metal passages. ‘Sleepless’ is a great example of these musical dynamics, which give the song the necessary variety.

‘The Decline’ is not a light-hearted album. Rather, the trio deals with the dark and sinister abysses of human existence. Isolation and despair were feelings which came forward in the pandemic. This is reflected in the six tracks and ‘The Deline’ acts as a cleansing catalyst. Perish do not reinvent black metal with their debut album, but manage to give each song the necessary depth and blackened glow through musical finesse and savvy.