Endstille

Formed in Kiel, Germany, during 2000, the black metal outfit Endstille assembled around vocalist Iblis, guitarist Lars Wachtfels, bassist Cruor, and drummer Mayhemic Destructor—the final trio having previously collaborated in the underground act Tauthr. Bound by a shared goal to deliver, as they phrased it, “the ugliest aggressive black metal with the fire-speed of an MG42 and the power of heavy ship-artillery,” the group unleashed some of the most unrelenting and breakneck black metal assaults committed to tape across the Regain Records releases Operation Wintersturm (2002), Frühlingserwachen (2003), Dominanz (2004), and Navigator (2005). Endstille’s recurring lyrical focus on notorious German armaments of the Second World War prompted certain observers to scrutinize the band’s political leanings, yet the members firmly rejected any association with right-wing ideology even after issuing further works such as the 2006 Lauschangriff EP, a split with satanic black metallers Graupel, followed by Endstilles Reich in 2007 and Verführer in 2009.