Nocturnal Depression :"Near to the Stars"

At one point Depressive black metal was set to be the next big thing in terms of black metal, then Shining went and started making cock rock albums, so Totalselfhatred has now become my only hope. I was hopeful when I came across the new one by France's Nocturnal Depression.  France normally makes some pretty quality metal. This band has been around for ten years and this album is it's 6th full length. Two of the three members of this project preformed live with Make a Change Kill Yourself.. which is high pedigree when it comes to this sub genre.

First off I had to get over the shitty production. Sometimes this is easier for me to do than others. It works for the more jangly clean guitar on "Crystal Tears". Though that jangle creates a ragged drone as it ambles on for 13 minutes. The lingering intro "In the Arms of Fog" is a shaky instrumental and sound like it should be part of a longer piece as you are waiting for the anguished shrieks to sail in over the riff.

The bittersweet tragic sense of romanticism that this brand of black metal conveys so well is in tact when the ten minute title track is underway. The vocals are tortured rasp that is more emotive than anything possessing lyrical value. The riffs mainly shift from two themes, almost like a Burzum song. Some cool melodic , but simple layers of guitar sit like a light rain on this  The dynamic build is slow coming but it gets there and also has the slower break down to contrast when the storm really comes.

"Nocte Aeterna" is a slower almost acoustic song that is counter balance by the chocked growls . This capture the creepy moods and morbid melodic nature I want from this sort of thing. They hit every atmospheric mark, from the weird rain samples to the dissonance of chords in the build.

At four and a half minutes even the lingering noise that starts off the albums closing song, makes it seem like pop after the drone of the 13 minute zombie before it. Though it never turns into a song but remains just guitar jamming, almost like the scene in Last Days the Gus Van Zandt movie about Kurt Cobain , where he is just going at his guitar in a drugged drone.

Long songs like the title track don't normally last long in the old iPod, but then again I am always hungry for this sort of thing, it can satisfy the goth mope in me and the need more the balls of metal. So I will give this a 9 for now, the sound quality is the only thing holding it back.

 

Iskald : "Nedom og Nord"

Iskald means ice cold in Norse, and as far a Norwegian Black metal goes forming in 2005 puts these guys as being newer kids on the block. They play melodic black metal, that is well written and has enough dark and creepy ring into the guitars to draw my ears in. It's well produced not unlike Immortal in this regard. There is nothing cult here, the blasting is kept to a groove laden middle gallop. Much like Immortal this is very thrash laced and would be a good entry point for someone trying to find a listener friendly gateway into black metal.
The opener uses more restraint than you would expect from this sort of thing, and in a year where their doesn't appear to be a lot of black metal on the horizon, I think this album is going to be welcomed among the fans , and the timing of it's release is going to play into this band's favor.

"Underworldy" is a nice frosty blend of propulsion and speed , balanced out by the melodic nature of  the riff-age here. While the Immortal comparison abound, there's touches of older Enslaved and Vried is lacing the edges. The vocals stay in a midrange rasp dipping down a note here and there into more of a death metal growl.The cool riffs don't make a song rule is still intact though these guys take a swing with their maces at crushing the theory.

Not a big fan of bands that name songs after themselves, it's done here and the song dips into a more contemplative melodic side at first before springing back into the furious blackened thrash that seems to gain momentum as the album progresses. When the band gets caught up in the blur of speed they create, they tend to loses me until the guitar find more meat to stick to. These guys are no doubt great players, the guitar playing here is where this band shines, though the very melodic phrasing of the bass is welcomed as bass tend to not make it's presence as known in this sort of thing. The synths at the end are well used to create the dynamic build.


"The Silence" comes out of the gate with mcnastiness. This diminishes the dynamic capabilities of the band as the first minute and a half of the song is a blur.The riffs that shift almost endlessly in these songs are very intricate in their arrangement. Composition is the strong point to the song writing here. The lyrical content being the weaker polarity. The band retraces its steps in the snow to find the more epic strengths in "Nidingsdad" the double bass here handles the under current of speed allowing the guitar to soar over it.They continue to hit you with a lot of detailed riffage. The guitar playing on this album is some of the best I heard from a band of their ilk since Enslaved. The vocal patterns are on the other hand rather bland. They do layer clean vocals with the harsh vocals ,to create an even more Enslaved feel, this is not idol worship as it captures a sound of their own.

The title track closes out the album, it holds off on some of the speed, instead weaving the web of riffs.They don't hold off too long on the blast but as a brief interval for the solo to lay over it works. Its when the clean guitar floats in under the harsh vocals for a minute that I'm surprised and this is something I wish they would have built upon rather than defaulting to a more traditional approach. The folky guitar close to the seven minute mark is a nice touch and gives a more Moonsorrow feel.

I'll give this album an 8, it might grow on me, the vocal patterns and the default modes it sometimes reverts to were the only draw backs on my end, in a time where you are starving for black metal, this goes above and beyond just being satisfying into some excellently crafted black metal.