Nightmares of blood and bone-dusted rituals place us dead center, abloom within a thorn-filled wrought iron garden as our portal to the eternal realm of death’s temptation. The bramble wrapped bell above the altar rings hollow, tributing insight and rendering insanity under the smoking-eye’d gaze of the eternal liberator, Lucifer. A spring of ghostly screams and fog-dank corpse piles introduces use to the next portal, the sophomore full-length album from Szeged, Hungary-based death-doom metal duo ROTHADÁS. Spirits are ripped from urns, eyes explode with frothing blood, greeting us with their gaze as ‘Töviskert… a kísértés örök érzete… lidércharang‘ muses over deranged fixations, deeper stabbed rituals within this sublimely eroded crypt’s passage toward the underworld. Havoc minded misanthropy feeds the riff-handed strikes of these folks’ escalating craft, violent rhythms which impose their morbid fascinations by way of harder-struck grooves and the ever-lingering threat of doom beneath their deafening mayhem.

Rothadás formed circa 2019 between guitarist/bassist Tibor Hanyi (Cryptworm) and drummer/vocalist Lambert Lédeczy (Ahriman, Fagyhamu, et al.) who have collaborated in several groups (Mörbid Carnage, Tyrant Goatgaldrakona, Coffinborn) spanning various niches of extreme metal over the last decade or two. For this particular project their sound targets riff-built and heavily atmospheric ‘old school’ inspired death-doom metal which’d stretch its hand between Abhorrence/Amorphis‘ early days heft and early 90’s Bolt Thrower inspired movements set to the high-fidelity warped visions of nowadays groups such as Krypts, Ataraxy and Mortiferum. This’d naturally aligned with my own taste having been impressed with the classicist inspiration of their first demo (‘Rothadás‘, 2019) and completely stoked out of my skull for their debut LP (‘Kopár hant… az alvilág felé‘, 2021) which I’d praised highly in review before setting it at #11 on my The Top 75 of 2021. Heading into this record the extended title and a similar color palette used for the cover art from Khaos Diktator suggest consistency, a proper follow up at face value.

This turns out to be true in most every aspect as ‘Töviskert… a kísértés örök érzete… lidércharang‘ picks up where ‘Kopár hant… az alvilág felé‘ left off via the dreariest death-doom saunter of opener “Urnaszellem… szentek csontpora” and goes on to develop a harder-edged pure death metal sound and less atmospherically fixated approach throughout. That isn’t to say that the atmosphere isn’t thick as rolling fog but that this sophomore album spares the listener introductions and lunges into the enormous sound of this album within seconds. That Funebrarum-esqe (or, Gorement) beaten chop into the riff ~1:35 minutes into the opener channels a burliest yet point of roar and tremolo-picked downpour as the tank-like hull of Rothadás reveals. When the second guitar’s leads melt in around ~3:30 minutes in the gravity hits and the immersive, thunderous band outta nowhere I’d spurged out over back in 2021 had already flattened my shit again with that first song.

The majority of “Vértükör” stood out soon after for its development of a main riff that was clearly inspired by mid-90’s Bolt Thrower, eventually working in more spaced and searching leads to direct things toward a ‘The Karelian Isthmus‘ or earlier Desecresy type surreal and chunking movement. This is an obvious highlight per the mid-paced step of the song allowing for the production values of this album to shine in showcase of a massive dual rhythm guitar tone and louder, more crisply presented drum presence; With six songs to tout and ~45 minute runtime Rothadás once again make every piece count though the fixation upon balancing punishing riffcraft with their knack for atmospheric drifting wield shines as something new, heavier than thou on Side A. This moves their sound away from a too-direct likeness to say, ‘Remnants of Expansion‘, and something with a notable clarity to its command.

‘Kopár hant… az alvilág felé‘ breached the path to the underworld within its second half, drifting over time into its abysm yet on this follow up Rothadás reward the devout with a different path, one that ends in the maw of Luciferian adherent. That is to say that Side B is a trip that pummels it out to start. “Tetemek tava… lidércek tánca” reignites the same sensibilities the previous two songs had, ringing arpeggiation and double-bass kicked backing with hard as nails swagger driving its low B-string wrangling grooves, and this all feels standard per the action of this record at that point. Where these folks find their greatest point of interest is yet in the creeping cull of things such as the break nearby ~2:52 minutes in and big unexpected riffs that hit nearby the end (re: ~4:30 minutes into the song). While these aren’t as erratic or densely writ as some of the bands prior material it is yet very much in line with their signature formed thus far.

There aren’t a plethora of surprising or mind-blowing moments that shock on the way through. The go bigger, more aggressive approach of the band on ‘Töviskert… a kísértés örök érzete… lidércharang‘ is effective enough as a compounding event, a solidification of their gig beyond the last. The point that’d blown my mind and had me more patiently picking through the sinew of this album came with the 9.5 minute closer “Az örök isten Lucifer” which recreates the transfixing death/doom metal struck gloom of Rothadás by way of a patiently developed rouse. The dissonant chords struck beyond ~2:23 minutes in offer severe malaise, point of congestion that had me claustrophobic ’til the blasting, bass guitar interrupted haul of this piece hits. The gamut of this song is considerable, easily one of the major highlights of the record in broader representative strokes yet the big moment hasn’t even hit ’til the chorale begins to hit ~7:03 minutes into the piece at its apex, repeating the dynamic of this albums material in leaving a revelation at the end of most every song. The clean vocals only appear briefly but the moment they hit I was saying, man, the album could’ve used ten times more of that hymnal sound throughout. It is the big moment I will remember first whenever returning to this album in the future.

With consideration for what expectations a sophomore full-length album might typically carry along Rothadás are clearly a band with a direct vision and a sense for consistency per decades of shared experience, they’ve nailed what I’d wanted to hear as a fan. While there are only a few surprising or experimental moments to be found on ‘Töviskert… a kísértés örök érzete… lidércharang‘ I’d found those ideas profound enough to entertain and crack open some new possibilities for next time. Their work otherwise successfully follows up the previous record with an all around refinement of their core ideal, a sound which fans of classic death metal and nowadays morbid colossus death/doom metal should find more than worthy. A very high recommendation.

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