TRACKLISTING

 

1.-The Funeral Wind Born In Oriana
2.-Night Before The Fight
3.-Black Raven
4.-The Call Of Aryan Spirit
5.-The Child Of Swamps And Full Moon
6.-Death Damnation
7.-...In The Fire Of The Wooden churches
8.-jesus' blood
9.-Nechrist: The Dance Of Swords
88.-Perun's Celestial Silver

 

   The controversial band is back and angrier than ever. After the violent turn that meant To The Gates Of Blasphemous Fire, they still don't recover that epic sound they fully accomplished in Goat Horns. It doesn't mean the quality of the music has been lessened. Neither am I saying that the epicness is gone (au contraire, this effort is by far more thunderously epic than To The Gates...) No, but NeChrist is their heaviest material so far, a straighter album that balances thick riffs with the folk touch in a complex structure that defies song formula. Of course, it's not the same heaviness than the previous album; instead, it's a thickness that's aided by the production. Clearly taking again the legacy of the old Emperor with their bare hands, Nokturnal Mortum has become a powerful force that experiment with the Black Metal, managing to sound fresh without intruding totally into other genres' field (sometimes, there will surface a Death Metal streak, or even some Punk riff fit somewhere) and yet, the virulent use of keyboards, uncommon instruments and voices that acompany Varggoth's screech give the symphonic BM a whole new meaning that, fortunately, only they exploit. The keyboards are, as always, masterful, although the sonic superiority they had in Goat Horns or Lunar Poetry, when they took care of the folk, is taken by other instruments, like flute or violin. For example stands the remake of "Perun's Celestial Silver", song that was premiered in Lunar Poetry, now extended and improved. They betted on a more saturated production, which dulls the sound of the guitar until it's very hard to separate one note from another. Also the drumming loses definition in some parts, only going along the rhythm. The bass didn't recovered that distorted main role that played in Goat Horns but it still denies anonymity. To point out a weakness in NeChrist, I would say that "The Child Of Swamps And Full Moon" does not contribute much, but, I'd also dare to say that the main feebleness falls to the ear-numbing potency that is constant throughout the album. Even so, it should not considered as a disadvantage itself, it's just that the listener needs more time to fully understand it. And thus, the album creates even more layers than the obvious; the listening is even more interesting, if tiresome.

 

   NeChrist condensates the spirit of the previous albums, the band's style in its wholeness, but two things make it a difficult listening: one, like it's been said, is the awful production that lessens definition. The other is their Nazi tendencies (although this could be an advantage, too, for the ukrainian folk that gives the melody to their music is fueled by their nationalism) These factors bury the band again in the underground, after the ascending path into the mainstream they had been treading since Goat Horns. The listener should not pay attention to these diversions, for the music is one of the greatest promises inside the BM scene, since they have come back with a strongly-defined personality. Seeing it globally, To The Gates Of Blasphemous Fire worked as a transition step that shaped their sound with agresiveness, with an album like NeChrist as the result. The war that in the previous album was taking form is now totally declared. Pure black metal might be dead, but Nokturnal Mortum pay an excellent tribute.

 

99 OUT OF 100