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Svffer – Empathist

Svffer – Empathist

Svffers debut, Lies we live, made it to my 2014 yearlist. You can imagine I was more than happy to check what these crazy Germans are up to this year. Only one year later the band is already back with another eight songs clocking in just under twenty minutes. In that year not much has changed. The band still operates from within their own niche incorporating grindcore, crust and powerviolence into one violent blend.

On Empathist the band brings us eight new tracks. Or should I say “only eight new tracks”. That’s basically the biggest disappointment. Not even 20 minutes of new material is just too short… The good thing of course is that Epathist doesn’t overstay it’s welcome, but a couple more songs would not have hurt. The big danger of the speed and intensity Svffer plays their music combined with the mixing of different styles is that Empathist ends up sounding like a blur of sound. And it doesn’t. Whether the band goes full on grind or brings some pure hardcore riffs to the table (usually during one song), the album sounds very coherent. On Lies we live the band already showed the world they could write songs and remain extreme, Empathist proves they still master that trick.

Die Tonmeisterei seems the place to be for (extreme) German bands and listening to Svffer I can understand why. No matter how extreme the music gets, the production makes sure everything sounds crystal clear. The production allows the band to shine. Empathist, with it’s great songs and production, consolidates Svffer as a big promise in extreme music. Perhaps it’s easy to say, as the end of the year is pretty close, but Svffer will be in my yearlist again, this year.

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