Band: KODFOLT / THY FUNERAL
Country: Hungary
Title: Levitation of the Dying Souls
Label: Total Darkness Propaganda
Year: 2019
Style: Black Metal

Review:
It's no secret for anyone reading Pest / Slowly We Rot that I admire the Hungarian scene with all its bands and projects, labels and zines; from an outsider point of view it seems like a very effervescent, alive scene, although I know it is all done by a handful of people who enjoy being involved (and creative for that matter) as much as possible, so split releases like this one are no surprise at all but are just another enhancer of the impression I had/have on this scene.
Kodfolt from Veszprem is a one man band apparently started in 2009 but only active discographically since 2018 when it released a demo on the same TDP label. We're treated here with a long track (10+ minutes long) into slow/mid-paced Black Metal creating a dense, foggy, mysterious atmosphere from start to finish. Repetitive and memorable guitar tremolo and riffs backed by quite energetic drumming that seems to be recorded live, a razor-sharp ghoulish screaming vocal that doesn't vary much, and all these on a serious layer of old-school atmospheric keyboards. I think Botoond did a very good job here.
Thy Funeral is again a one-man-band from very near the capital city, basically a suburb of Budapest, and presents one track here, again over 10 minutes in duration. But what's curious here is the fact the band is defunct now and its latest release was the one and only full-length album The End of Life in 2011, also this track was recorded in 2004 and never released so far, so it's either Thanatos (the man behind Thy Funeral) is thinking on reviving the project, or this is just a remembering of Thy Funeral and that's it; I guess we'll see. The music is a mid-tempo to fast paced Black Metal with very upfront bass lines, buzzing tremolo guitars with occasional somehow melodic leads, powerful drumming (programmed) and eerie keyboard background lead by a demented Black Metal screaming vocal, so all sounds good except it doesn't, the production is disastrous, the mix and master (if any) makes this track accessible only to the most fanatic fans of chaotic Black Metal recordings, on the other hand I admit it gives the project a kult aura and maybe it was worth it.
Cool stuff, I have enjoyed this piece of Hungarian darkness, go support TDP by buying this limited edition (150 copies) cassette tape from them!
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7.5/10   6/10

Contact:
facebook.com/totaldarknessp
tdpropaganda.bandcamp.com