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NAZGHOR
Upon The Darkest Season

Dead Center Productions (2014)
Rating: 8/10

Since forming in 2012, Sweden’s Nazghor have been extremely prolific. Upon The Darkest Season is their second opus, following on from 2013’s Life Impaled. I have to say, I thought this was going to be another tiresome black metal affair, but thankfully I was wrong.

Nazghor have a real black eye for toxic melody, and I’m impressed by many of the slower segments on this hour long sophomore effort. Although the band are also comfortable with playing at a scathing pace, the melodies provided throughout are extremely engrossing.

Nazghor is fronted by the despicable rasps of Nekhrid who, although rather generic when it comes to his evil narration (mind you, it’s not exactly easy to be diverse within a field than merely requires vocalists to wretch their guts up!), is still convincing. He offers a throatier sneer, which enable tracks such as ‘Born Of Misanthropic Blackness’ to have a real gritty edge.

Of all the ten tracks on offer, there is nary a duff one in sight and the atmosphere is cold and cavernous throughout. The evil is started off with the distant clangs of ‘Insignia Cadavera’, which then paves the way for the foetid footsteps of ‘Of Deceitful Beauty’, a track which emerges upon sinister strains of stark chords and steady drums.

With so many black metal bands claiming to be “true” to their beliefs and the culture, it’s nice to actually hear a band that is convincing. While Nazghor are very much of that mid-90s black metal wave, I just adore the melancholic solos and dense riffs on this grim configuration of cruelty. While always having a grimace about them, Nazghor prefer to keep the riffs infectious instead as a mere remote backdrop.

Fans of Darkthrone and the likes will find much to savour, especially in the vocals, particularly with ‘Day Of Sepulchral’. Disciples of methodical atmospheric black metal will enjoy the title track, meanwhile, but for me the band really comes to life with the epic ‘Within Crimson Kingdom’ with its simmering opening of crashing, crushing drums and ominous structures.

This really is a solid black metal album from a band displaying shedloads of maturity and also an understanding of the genre. While black metal bands have always been two-a-penny since Darkthrone’s A Blaze In The Northern Sky (1992), Nazghor have such a filthy guitar sound that one can’t help but be dragged down into the inner depths of this bat cave. Nazghor have succeeded where many others have failed; in constructing a sinful little slab of metal that doesn’t leave me numb with mediocrity. Nice one, fellas. Keep it wretched!

Neil Arnold

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