Nachtmystium - Demise

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 March 20 2008 at 09:42:44 PM

Having been released on LP by Australia’s Asgard Musik and on picture disc by Goatowarex, stateside Autopsy Kitchen lays down the goods in an excellent reissue of Nachtmystium’s 2004 recording, Demise. Nachtmystium frontman Azentrius has previously stated the intent of Demise: to craft Black Metal in the tradition of Burzum, especially the epic Hvis Lyset Tar Oss—long droning compositions sheathed in static buzz. While the songs on Demise don’t even come close to aping or rivaling anything on Hvis, they do offer homage to Darkthrone’s Transilvanian Hunger and the sort of ice encrusted malevolence typified by Judas Iscariot’s The Cold Earth Slept Below. This record’s finest moments are realized in its longest compositions: “Rise and Fall” is one of those less-is-more affairs, where pleasure and intent is realized in seemingly banal sonic contributions—rattling hi-hats, repetitive guitar figure, morosely anguished cries, all of which grate and plod for over nine minutes. Same for “Solitary Voyage,” a seven-minute foray that transliterates Moonblood’s “In a Bloody Night of Fullmoon” into an even more oppressive syntax—unforgiving and as ferocious as the rest of the lot.

[Stewart Voegtlin]

Nachtmystium

Demise

2006

Autopsy Kitchen