Sterveling is the brainchild of M.vdW, who is or was active in the Avant-garde Metal band Prospectors, Black Metal band Weltschmerz, the Death Metal band Iron Harvest and the dissonant Black Metal band Wesenwille. Quite a diverse range of music performed by bands that he has played in, and Sterveling was created to fulfill yet another musical challenge. That of depressive Black Metal, to be precise.
In M.vdW’s newest project he plays bass, guitar, keyboards and taught himself how to play drums. On the first release, R.vR of amongst others Faceless Entity and Melancholie joins him on guest vocals. That debut demo features one track entitled ‘In de Schoot der Aarde’, a composition of 15 and a half minutes full of mid-tempo depressive Black Metal. Synthesizers open the track, soon joined by a raw sounding barebone guitar riff and fairly prominent bass. The joining drums are mostly at a low to medium pace, although somewhat later in the track M.vdW clearly tries to add a creative break and a higher pace section. It’s an admirable way to add some diversity to the song, and the change of pace works well with the intense vocal section offered by R.vR. In general, his vocal performance is excellent, even adding some remarkably well-sounding clean vocals. Otherwise, I think it’s a stretch to say that Sterveling does anything that transcends the depressive Black Metal genre, but it’s certainly a decent first attempt at it.
Considering that M.vdW went out of his way to learn how to play drums just to fulfil his vision of a one-man depressive Black Metal band is commendable. And the fact that a live line-up has been assembled shows there are some ambitions yet to be fulfilled with Sterveling. As for ‘In de Schoot der Aarde’, it’s a charming, somewhat by the book depressive Black Metal work. For a first try, the band deserves the benefit of the doubt.
