Nachtmystium - Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1
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Nachtmystium's demise isn't near, but they should embrace the time they have left. After signing with major label Century Media, intuitive bands work on the ticking clock that measures the downfall toward mediocrity. Usually, scraggly production is the first thing to go - The Haunted is a prime example. Here, Century Media strips away the hissing recording that complements black metal's signature hum. This, along with changing vocals, pulls Nachtmystium far away from their true Darkthrone-seasoned flavor.
Assassins (excerpt)Seasick Part 2 (excerpt)
Evidence of this appears in the second track of Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. I. "Assassins" first strikes with a barrage of fluent blastbeat, blistering riff, and Blake Judd's familiar Nachtmystium/Twilight rasp. But then comes a putrid chorus that brushes off all of the band's black metal foliage. In homoerotic camaraderie, the men of Nachtmystium bark, "We feel nothing / And are nothing / Traveling leaches / Rejecting weakness / We stand alone." With these layman lyrics and repetitive riffs, "Assassins" is the longest Nachtmystium song ever. They trick us in the "Seasick" three-song series with atmospheric interludes that juice Assassins into a tangy citrus. Then the sap turns sour with "Seasick (Part 2: Oceanborne)." The track exemplifies Assassin's weak approach to Nachtmystium's once fierce abomination. After a gentle riff reminiscent of Earth’s ambient psychedelia, a soaring saxophone leaps in, cluttering Assassins with reeking sewage. This shit is rank!
Regardless of what path Nachtmystium take, their old material will always do them justice. Eulogy IV and Instinct: Decay voyage deep into the depths of black death. Their beastly delivery in these releases shells out magnificent, lo-fi fuzz that echoes hauntingly in menacing chambers. This stuff runs thick in my blood, a feeling not easily lost. But such darkness is missing in Assassins. I hope it isn’t the beginning of an end, as it's barely worthy of an invisible orange.
Labels: black metal, jblumensheid, usa
30 Comments:
I'm a fan of many genres of music including black metal. As far as black metal goes, I generally like it to be raw (Bathory, early Darkthrone), dark (Mortuus), and/or laced with majestic riff-fests (Ofermod). I'm not usually a fan of bands that try to blend black metal with other genres. For whatever reason, I was never able to get into Nachtmystium's earlier works, including the previous release. I actually dug this one, but wouldn't classify it as black metal. In fact, it's not particularly dark, either. Still, I think the production complements their sound, and I like its experimental aspects. As far as American black metal goes, I think the Howling Wind have the formula down.
This was the first bad thing I've heard about this album.
JB, you couldn't be wronger. But I guess if you still think trad/hidebound black metal has aesthetic virtues in 2008, there's not much that can be done for you. Me, I think this is a worthy next step after Instinct: Decay, and look forward to the next Nacht full-length, on which they will hopefully develop their sound even further, getting even more progressive and less and less "kvlt."
to each his own. I just don't dig it. pdf makes a good point, though. thanks for the criticism.
Jess, I agree this isn't very good, though I sense we might differ in opinion on the whys. It's certainly not bad because it veers from the grim path.
Also it's amazing to me how the total Ephel Duath - Painter's Palette lift in that Oceanborne song is never mentioned in the press. Seriously, exact same thing, saxophones and all.
This Blake Judd fellow lost all credibility as far as I'm concerned in that Twilight interview in Decibel. His music was never very good but displaying that sort of character just sealed it for me.
It is worth mentioning however, that The Haunted never had anything near a non-modern production. Their shit might have gotten even more fried and overcompressed with every new (and bad) record after the debut, but that first one is also highly produced. Sorry for double-post, if we could edit comments it'd be easier not to appear as forgetful as I am.
This record fucking sucks. Plain and simple. Nice work, Jess.
The most productive query is not the validity of an aesthetic - one person's classic is another person's hidebound - but how it is executed.
I love this album, that whole combination of the band's growing obsession with prog/psychedelic with Sanford Parker's trademark style (warm analog tone, space rock synths, the ubiquitous Bruce Lamont sax solo) appeals to me. Plus I like how it's sequenced, it seems to evolve from one extreme to another. It's a brave album.
Oh, and I think the one line goes, "Trampling elitists / rejecting weakness."
Oh but you don't stand alone! A slow tide of hipsters stands with you!
Personally, I couldn't care less about all the hipster paranoia within metal circles. In fact it's kind of comical.
How is this "brave?" What chances did they take and how far did they expand into something different – not something just “new” for them, but something distinct? They're on Century Media for fucks sake. This was more or less expected of the band and it naturally fails to measure up to the hype. All this press-fed bullshit about Floyd/Prog and blah blah blah, which began on Instinct/Decay, has mostly to do with Judd bragging about his vinyl collection (and taking shrooms) and little to do with the actual songwriting. It barely has any real impact on the record. It's barely present besides a few pedal effects, organs, bland rnr solos and minute-long intros. It’s like RUUN but far less capable and leaning more on pop-punk for inspiration. The entire structure and flow of the record is bland and unsurprising. If they had actually tackled this whole hog I could at least appreciate the effort. But this is 100% fucking coy.
Ouch.
i'm loving this record. to me this review reads like the typical "it's not tr00 / cvlt / br00tal enough" stab. come on... i think the band is expanding beyond the confines of traditional black metal and doing an amazing job with it.
Oh, Vince! There are plenty of lovely ways to "expand beyond the confines of traditional black metal and do an amazing job with it." See: WRNLRD, VELVET CACOON, RUINS OF BEVERAST, etc. Please do not see: Nachtmystium.
This idea about 'traditional black metal' is ridiculous. A genre that once spanned from Mercyful Fate to Master's Hammer and from Fleurety to Deicide now is retroactively reduced to Norwegian cliche aping. A blast-beat, the Transylvanian Hunger riff some corpse-paint and that's your 'traditional black metal'.
And then you take this strawman and you say "how do we expand beyond the confines of this"? Burzum already expanded upon this 15 years ago. Root expanded upon this 10 years ago. The genre has gone places while the hipster speculum was turned elsewhere.
The lack of historical depth is why this 'scene' produces such vacuous music. Constant reinvention of the wheel. Some good music comes out of this, thankfully, but on the whole it does more worse to the genre than good.
I still need to track down this Elfling Twat song or whoever, but if Cargo Judd is ripping off people outside of his shitty distro I would not be surprised.
ROOT is awesome.
LOL @ "hipster speculum"
And if you people want to attack/criticize, isn't it a little more honest to NOT do it anonymously?
I was just listening to this album the other day...I like it.
anonymous truth is still truth. i think ex.person said it all. thanks.
"leaches" or "leeches" in the lyrics excerpt?
Good job! You found an editing mistake. Now I can't consider anything the review says. Thanks for that!
Sorry I have to post anonymously. I'm not a vagina, I swear. In real life I bench 250, slam protein shakes, and fight better than I spell.
It's not an editing mistake, the lyric is "trampling elitists", as stated above.
The Ephel Duath thing is 100% coincidence. The longest Nachtmystium song ever is on Demise. The Haunted Made Me Do It was recorded analog. etc. etc. etc.
Assumptions are cheaper than facts, but that's what you get from a generation that would gladly trade Webster's for Wikipedia.
RE: "anonymous truth is still truth."
Well, anonymous opinions are still opinions. I'll give you that.
Funny how just as Nachtmystium has escaped its lockstep BM fascist aesthetic and nefarious label affiliations -- for an empowering chorus, fleshed-out guitars, analog synth, sax, mushrooms, city life and proper distribution -- it is criticized by the once-doting indie elite whose feminist girlfriends had a problem with Nachtmystium being BM in the first place. Hopefully this signals the end of your readers' metal phase. May they find something truly precious at the end of the road.
Thanks for caring so much. For the record, I don't have any girlfriends that listen to metal, let alone know who Nachtmystium is or care to have an opinion about them. I'm not an indie elite, I just don't like the NEW Nachtmystium album, fair and square. Hopefully you'll move on and respectfully reserve nit-picking attacks for more-established writers. Thanks.
[quote]The Haunted Made Me Do It was recorded analog. [/quote]
You can fry an analog source mix in mastering just fine.
Oh for sure. But I recall the LP sounding distinctly un-fried in this case. I will spin it tomorrow and see if I still think so.
Do tell, cuz it sounds pretty severe for me (not as much as the horrid Revolver end job, but still). I wouldn't call Made Me Do It warm and human at any rate.
Sure, it's thrash, yes it must have edges, alright it's supposed to be loud, but I have a volume knob right here, Earache
I wonder what all the haters think of Enslaved since Mardraum. If the answe r is negative I know enough
This review reeks of the same sort of smug as the A.N.U.S. website.
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