It has been quite some time since I first encountered Zeegang. At the time, I picked up two tapes from the project: the debut ‘Dialectica Oceanus’ and ‘Een Morgenstond, door mist verhuld’.
In 2021, the second album ‘De Poëzie van Vallende Sneeuw’ followed, and now Robbert van Rumund returns with a third full-length record. Van Rumund, also known for his work with Faceless Entity and Alburum, released this album last July, though it was largely obscured by the sheer flood of new releases at the time.
With this third offering, Zeegang once again affirms its quiet yet unwavering presence within a musical landscape defined by melancholy, introspection, and stillness.
Where Van Rumund explores chaos and raw aggression with Faceless Entity, and follows a more folk-oriented path with Alburum, Zeegang reveals a far more atmospheric and melancholic facet of his creative expression.
After four years of silence, Zeegang returns with a record that delves deeply into the inevitability of despair. It captures that moment when the abyss feels uncomfortably close, when hope is no longer a certainty, but something that must be fought for. The album stands as a stark reminder that despondency can surface at any time, and that amid the coldness of this world, it is ultimately up to us to find a fire by which we can keep ourselves warm.
‘Van niets uit deze wereld’ feels like a resigned acceptance of an overwhelming burden. Within that acceptance, however, space is created for beauty to re-emerge, as agony slowly begins to recede. Musically, the album unfolds through long, dreamlike auditory mantras, atmospheric black metal that does not aim to overwhelm, but rather to bear witness: to inner struggle, to stillness, and to a hard-won clarity.
Once again, Zeegang delivers a beautiful atmospheric Black Metal album, marked by a deep commitment to mood and depth. The record is structured around two expansive compositions that form its gravitational core, with several shorter pieces orbiting them, further enriching the album’s emotional and thematic layers.
