Arson Cafe: Tulus - Fandens kall Review

Thursday, February 23, 2023

Tulus - Fandens kall Review

Despite being a quite long lasting band and with quite a steady trajectory right from the heart of the Norwegian second wave of black metal, I always feel that Tulus is not talked enough. Despite of that, fans who are aware of them usually have a positive affliction towards the project, especially their classic debut Pure Black Energy from 1996. Since 2007, they have been fairly active and Fandens kall is now full length no. seven, with a classic cover art of realistic nature and an equally traditional and simple title (=hell's call).

Fandens kall begins and feels extremely familiar right away. Tulus practices a foundational compositional approach, somewhere between recent Darkthrone / Sarke and Khold, basically throughout the whole record, which also doesn’t really diverge from their previous records of the last few years. The production is thankfully clean and healthy, its raspy vocals are understandable enough if you know Norwegian and the general pace of the album overall takes it easy and contains no surprises. While the tracks are nicely written, I would guess this kind of material is extremely well inside the comfort zone of the band and doesn’t take any risks.

Even if this is not a negative by default, I found some of the pieces of Fandens kall slightly indifferent if not dull, especially at “Lek” or “Samuelsbrenna”. The opener self-titled track is fine, as are “Allstøtt”, the nice ending of “Bloddråpesvermer” and the almost adventurous guitar lines of “Isråk”, however it’s hard to maintain attention to for a chunky part of the record. As a whole, the band and this work knows very well what it is and its target group, which could definitely be satisfied by it.

Tulus can definitely do better as a band with Fandens kall I am missing the sense of effort for creating this release exactly because the target group is so clearly defined, and usually constantly supportive. If you mix these tracks with the previous album Old Old Death, you won’t be able to pick them apart, and there’s always something missing for an actually efficient result.

DAMAGE: 2.75/5 [Average]

Release date: 17 Feb 23

Release label: Soulseller Records

Listen: Bandcamp

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Reckoning

From all the hills came screams. A piece of sky beside the crescent sun was detaching. It was a loosened circle of evening sky, suddenly lighted from the back. It was an abrupt black body out of nowhere; it was a flat disk; it was almost over the sun. That is when there were screams. At once this disk of sky slid over the sun like a lid. The sky snapped over the sun like a lens cover. The hatch in the brain slammed. Abruptly it was dark night, on the land and in the sky. In the night sky was a tiny ring of light. The hole where the sun belongs is very small. A thin ring of light marked its place. There was no sound. The eyes dried, the arteries drained, the lungs hushed. There was no world. We were the world’s dead people rotating and orbiting around and around, embedded in the planet’s crust, while the earth rolled down. Our minds were light-years distant, forgetful of almost everything.