No doubt within minutes of writing this review I’ll be fielding comments from some bored fifteen year old whose sole contact with the world of writing or recording music is sitting, bored, in front of their computer monitor hailing ‘true black metal’ as if they were personally there when the Black circle were burning churches. The ‘truth’ of black metal – if one was to somehow delineate such a vague concept thus – has surely been shown to be that there is no one truth to the genre. Indeed, when you consider how many black metal bands have evolved out of all recognition, the only unifying theme would seem to be an innate inability to give a good god-damn about what anyone thinks and a simple desire to make the music that moves you, whether that be the dark ambient of Ulver or Neptune Towers, the searing industrial of Thorns or the unholy shrieking of Burzum. It is this latter philosophy that ultimately defines Nachtmystium, the American black metal band founded by Blake Judd whose controversial career has seen all manner of stupidity addressed to a band who have single-mindedly bent, broken and destroyed pretty much every rule in the book whilst delivering albums that appeal both to the adrenal glands and the intellect. Tarnished with the ‘Nazi’ label in 2009 (despite frequent and fervent denials of being anything of the sort), harangued for not being ‘true black metal’, despite frequent comments from the band stating that they’re entirely disinterested in labels, it really does not matter what genre tag you feel obliged to small-mindedly stick on Nachtmystium for when the band deliver music of the quality of ‘Silencing Machine’ it is clear that no label is large enough to adequately encompass it anyway.
Featuring ten tracks in just shy of an hour, ‘Silencing machine’ is Nachtmystium’s sixth album and the experience of the twelve years since the band’s formation has led to the creation of an unholy masterpiece that veers between frozen black metal in the style of early Emperor and Darkthrone and the ebbing psychedelia of the seventies progressive music. However, unlike say, Opeth, the progressive passages are still delivered with a fiery and steadily burning fury making for a more consistent listen than Opeth’s jazzier efforts. Opening track ‘Dawn over the ruins of Jerusalem’ provides the perfect introduction to the album, the guitars and percussion raging but never overpowering Sandford Parker’s all-important keyboard parts which lend an inhuman air to proceedings that underscores the glacial feel of the music. The vocals are caustic, to put it mildly, laced with venom and delivered with utmost sincerity, but upon repeated listens it is those cold industrial elements that increasingly stand out, raising the hair at the back of the neck and suggesting layers that reveal themselves only upon repeated listens. The title track is a longer beast with furious percussion but a curiously slow melody meaning that the track feels like being caught at the very centre of a whirlwind, objects and dirt whirling around you at furious speed whilst you remain becalmed at the heart of it all, wondering when it will be your turn to spiral out of control into the maelstrom. Equally lengthy is ‘And I control you’ but it is a different work altogether – contemplative, dark and malicious, it eschews speed and violence and as a result ends up sounding far more creepy. Like the pent up tension of being secretly observed from afar, you can feel your skin crawling as the music slithers through the speakers, but it never erupts into a shocking act of violence which, for all its fury, would at least dispel the tension of naked, unspoken threat. Then, as you can take no more, the music changes shape and focus, the mood diminishing but not evaporating, and you’re plunged headlong into the flowing post-rock of Red Sparrowes and their ilk before the vocals kick back in and the track ends on a high of barked invective and churning guitars.
Remaining in the post-rock vein, ‘the lepers of destitution’ is an epic length track that weaves a shimmering web of melody from the broken husks of furiously distorted riffs. It is a remarkable track that opens up whole new vistas of sound and mood and highlights Nachtmystium’s unflinching commitment to serving the album rather than any ill-conceived notions of genre. ‘Borrowed hope and broken dreams’ is more typical, mid-tempo black metal with a fearsome groove to it and yet… ‘typical’ perhaps isn’t quite right, for as the song progresses a lonesome piano is introduced into the mix and suddenly we’re into rarely trodden territory where Darkthrone cover Anathema, their devotion to searing vocals and guitar lines held in check by the beautiful melodies. It’s hypnotic, absorbing and intriguing and will undoubtedly thrill those open-minded enough to give it a spin and it sums up Nachtmystium’s devotion to pushing boundaries perfectly. ‘I wait in hell’ is the perfect counterpoint to the previous track, a furious assault that rains down blood, fire and sulphur upon the hapless heads of the unprepared with its clinical riffs and inhuman vocal effects. Better still is the groovy, almost black ‘n’ roll of ‘Decimation, annihilation’ with its shuffle beat and oddball atmospherics keeping the listener on the wrong foot throughout and then we head back in to the frozen wastelands for ‘reduced to ashes’ with its odd, minor-key riffage suddenly subsumed by a haunting, ethereal voice which glides across the translucent surface of the song like a Siren calling you to an inglorious end on the rocks far from help. ‘Give me the grave’ is a softer, darker track that speaks of a great despair without sacrificing power and then we have reached the end – the seven minute finale that is ‘these rooms in which we weep’ which is closer to blackened doom than anything else, the tortured vocals supported by a devastating melodic trudge that balances devastating guitars with moments of glorious light for a track that is almost unbearably raw and emotional.
Nachtmystium may not musically stick to the narrow confines of the pre-conceived black metal blueprint, but their attitude, their utter disregard for form or convention, aligns them more closely to that genre than any other. There are moments here of blistering intensity and moments which, incongruously, would not sound out of place on a Mogwai record. Only the vocals remain permanently maxed out and utterly brutal, but even these are delivered sparingly, allowing the music to breathe when it needs to and the listener to absorb the depth of the compositional structures unhindered. Without doubt this is Nachtmystium’s most complete work to date, with each song complementing and developing upon the last and the album as a whole maintaining a cohesion within which the individual songs can thrive and prosper. Somehow beautiful despite its extremity, ‘Silencing machine’ is a dark masterpiece and a record of which any band, no matter what their genre, would be justly proud.
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