Unless you’re Guns ‘n’ Roses, seven years is a long time away from the music world, a gap from which few bands successfully return, and yet Nocternal Breed return here with a striking disregard for the rigours of time, unleashing a record that claws and screams with the feral fury that you might expect from a band that features members (past and present) of the black metal elite – Dimmu Borgir, Aeternus, Satyricon & Gehenna to be specific – not to mention a guest appearance from the mighty Nocturno Culto. Available through respected Polish label Agonia Records on both CD and 12”, ‘Napalm Nights’ is an essential slab of thrash-enhanced darkness that will appeal to fans of Aura Noir, early Dimmu and Kreator with its down ‘n’ dirty assault eschewing the gleaming surfaces of modern day production for the vinyl-embracing spit ‘n’ sawdust approach of the 80s.
Opening with the gnarly thrash of ‘The Devil swept the ruins’, a tinny, noxious slab of obsidian metal that sounds like Darkthrone playing Venom covers, ‘Napalm nights’ sets its stall out as the real deal, a record that represents the sound of a group of musicians playing their hearts out in a seedy basement rather than the hyper modern, chrome-plated Ikea-thrash of the modern world. A steadfast rejection of modernity, it’s a surprise that the album hasn’t been released on vinyl and tape rather than Vinyl and CD such is the grimy aura of NWOBHM that hangs over it and it’s not hard to imagine the band’s rehearsal space is adorned with shrines to Angel Witch, Venom and Judas Priest. ‘Speedkrieg’, which opens to the sound of marching feet, is a full-tilt blast of churning guitar, toxic solos and acid-blasted vocals. Detonating like a high impact round it brings to mind the work of Aura noir and Darkthrone’s ‘the underground resistance’ as filtered through the mind of Lemmy and once encountered it’ll stick with you… kind of like VD. An early highlight, ‘cursed beyond recognition’ is five minutes of blackened thrash with an epic feel, all flanged guitar and eerie atmosphere, its crawling, mid-paced drums giving the piece unexpected weight compared to the blistering pace of the opening cuts. ‘The bitch of Buchenwald’, a reference to the odious Ilse Koch who presided over numerous atrocities at the titular concentration camp, is the sound of Slayer’s ‘Angel of death’ as recorded by Venom whilst the ten minute title track with its lengthy opening sample drawn from cult war movie ‘hamburger hill’, may be one of the best thrash tracks to have been recorded since 1986, it’s brutal riffing set against a vocal line so unholy it could have been recorded by Mercedes McCambridge.
Whilst it has an unenviable task of following the epic brutality of the title track, the aptly titled ‘thrashiac’ doesn’t try to outdo its predecessor, opting for a brutal, full-frontal assault instead with evil, toxic riffs and a sneaky time change bringing to mind vintage Megadeth at their most supremely evil. ‘Dawn campaign… flamethrower ridge’ is a mid-paced beast that packs a Bolt Thrower-esque punch with its relentless percussive battery and chugging guitars. In contrast, ‘Under the whip’ has a classic feel with its NWOBHM opening riff and introductory solos reeking of pungent leather and sweat. Penultimate track ‘Dragging the priests’ is another highlight with its malicious bass line and demonic vocal only slowly giving way to the band’s trademark, heavy duty riffing. Final track ‘Krighisser (D.N.K)’ is the closest thing here to full on black metal with its frozen guitar riff and whirlwind percussion infinitely more poisonous than anything else on the album, highlighting the noxious musical background of Nocturnal breed’s constituents. It is a devastating end to an album that packs a ferocious punch from start to finish and underscores the devilish chain of inspiration that runs between vintage thrash, NWOBHM and early black metal.
Seven years may be a long time to wait, but ‘Napalm nights’ with its bloody tales of war at its most savage and even bloodier riffs does not disappoint. There’s a grimy atmosphere that hangs over this release like the dense pall of smoke that hangs over a battlefield when, shells spent, exhausted soldiers crawl out of their holes to retrieve their shattered dead. Potent, putrid and without an ounce of remorse, ‘napalm nights’ is the sound of metal uncorrupted by the soul-sapping advances of technology and social media and it sounds immense. The true sound of musicians who only give a flying fuck about the art of making music, it’s an all too rare sound in the modern world and ‘napalm nights’ is, therefore, a release that should be treasured by metal fans everywhere.
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