After the release of their noteworthy debut album De Doden Hebbet Het Goed in 2015 Belgian trio Weigedood decided to seal the deal by touring extensively, and in the process composed and produced the second part in their atmospheric black metal sequence.

With the name that in Flemish means something akin to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), or “death in the cradle”, if you take things less from a medicinal angle, your black metal atmospherics better not be too soft and soothing. And with Part II Weigedood are certainly not gentle. If anything, music is more overwhelming and nastier than it was on Part I. Or maybe it is simply more concise and direct, and therefore it feels more cutting and to the bone.

Speaking of cutting and overwhelming, guitars in the first part of Ontzielling will certainly do that, with their masculine distortion and Levy Seynaeve’s vocals which are nothing but horrid screams. Definitive melody barging in around 4’, however, makes all the difference, with crushing double bass bringing Ontzielling to a triumphant end. True to their vision of what atmospheric black metal should be, compositions on Part II swing from sideways pensive gloomy hooks depicting devastation and decay for the first 5’ of Cataract, guitars sawing you in half, to a plunge into an outright maelstrom, guitars licks akin to consuming flame tongues. As Wiegedood intend to repeat their riffs for many times, the trance feel sets in deeply, and De Doden Hebbt Het Goed Part II stupor may make you want to crush some obstacles directly in front. Tracks are flowing into and out of each other, synthetic drones connecting Cataract and the title track, and outro of the title track opening up a somewhat symphonically inclined Smeekbede, until total chaos ensues at the end of the latter.

The best composition, in my modest opinion, is again the title track. After drone carryover the devilish depraved vocals, marching rhythms and clangy metal riffs lead a strange procession. For a while you may want to think the end point is salvation, but then rapidly the title track begins plumbing the depths of its own madness, and all of a sudden instead of salvation one peers into depths. The genius closing melody of the title track is simply darkness impersonated.