[ALBUM REVIEW] Nychts/Mortualia - Nebelstern des Nichts

1. Nebelstern des Nichts

Fresh off the back of the tremendous Let the Devil In released at the back end of last year, the ever industrious Shatraug returns with Mortualia this time, and teams up with Swiss stargazers Nychts who themselves have been on the receiving end of a fair bit of acclaim lately. If you've heard “Zwischen Leere und Nichts” off the split with Wedard then you should have a good idea as to what Nebelstern des Nichts sounds like, and when combined with Shatraug's ability and experience the foundations are there for something very unique. Each band has their own 'movements' of sorts, they don't play in unison as I first thought, but Nychts handle the first twenty minutes or so and the last five, while Mortualia take the reins for the middle, with each section entwined by sampling and ambient work handled by the mastermind behind Nychts, Trähn.

Some brief electronic gibberish gets the ball rolling we're engulfed by Trähn's meandering guitar wash pierced by his wretched screams which I suspect wont be to everyone's taste, but when you're a Silencer fan I suppose you can pretty much stomach anything. I've yet to hear a metal band who can capture that astral sound anywhere near as good as Nychts, the way Trähn utilizes acoustic guitar, organs, piano and that Tangerine Dream like ambience is astounding, it's the same sort of sound present on Limbonic Art's Moon in the Scorpio but with more of an overall desolate and vacuous semblance with a massive funeral doom influence beneath it all. Some of the sounds and samples are just downright bizarre, emphasizing the sheer alien nature to Nychts music. Diverse doesn't even come close, hell we even get what appears to be a guest appearance from something that sounds suspiciously like Darth Vader at the nine minute mark. Trähn's vocals are strange, they aren't actually harsh in the typical black metal manner, more of a wailing scream submerged among the huge wall of spatial obscurity, creating an overall vibe that this track is one big acid trip through an astral wasteland gone horribly wrong. They've been described as 'musical jewelry' and in a way seems a very apt description, scintillating and absolutely enamoring.

After an interlude of a few minutes of strange beeping and a heavily echoed bass drum the Mortualia section kicks in and is a lot more orthodox than Nychts contributions, the vocals are raw and vicious, unmistakably Shatraug, a lot of the focus is centered on the guitar riffs and colourful lead work which remains tasteful throughout. The drumming is another excellent aspect about this release, it's comparable to the way Summoning programmed their drums on their later work, focused centrally around building the atmosphere first rather than just a backbone for the music, the sound off the bass drum is vast, echoing in the background as if it were a bell tolling doom. The last five minutes where Nychts take over again are incredible, the culmination of the destitute guitar melodies and Trähn's lost vocals backed up by that huge drum sound along with the night like ambience and what even sounds like a backing choir is pure audacity, but absolutely genius.

Ambitious would be one word, the concept of two bands performing alternating passages back and forth together throughout a forty minute song is something which as far as I'm aware has never been attempted before in black metal let alone metal itself. You'd expect something as elaborate as this to have some slight faults and potential conflicts and inconsistencies between both bands, but the execution and seamlessness with which it is performed and stellar arrangements which are truly astonishing. You can tell when each performer comes in and leaves again, but at the same time it doesn't sound as if it's two separate projects at all.

Bands like Darkspace etc take note, this is how it's supposed to be done. Atmospheric black metal which is as limitless as the universe itself, Nebelstern des Nichts is a terrifying journey into the undiscovered infinities of the cosmos; black metal which is utterly platonic and thoroughly engaging throughout every single minute of this release. The sooner Nychts release a full length album themselves the better. With Nebelstern des Nichts, these two black metal wizards unleash what could only be described as one of the finest attempts ever in the black metal genre at putting to record everything that is contained in the thought devouring wilderness of night's firmament. Essential.

98/100

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[ALBUM REVIEW] Nychts/Wedard - Zwischen Leere und Nichts

Nychts

1. Zwischen Leere und Nichts

Wedard

1. Masochist
2. Winter, My Final Chapter Pt. 1

When you hear the term 'Astral Black Metal', immediately bands such as Darkspace, Limbonic Art and Paysage D'Hiver would spring to mind. Whereas Darkspace are more akin to being stuck on a desolate space barge and drifting into a stellar oblivion, Nychts remind me more of 'Moon in the Scorpio' era Limbonic Art, a psychadelic acid trip through a dark velvet void flecked with millions of tiny flickering stars. Though I would use the term 'Black Metal' loosely for Nycht's side of the split, it is much more than simply Black Metal, for the musical focus where Nychts are concerned is not based around the guitar riffing or vocals, but rather the vast spatial atmosphere Trähn is creating with the synths.
The song begins with a slow meandering guitar lead but the most notable thing is the hollow synth sound that lingers about in the background, and only very slightly changing every now and again for the first half of the song. The guitar is not used in the traditional sense as you would expect in Black Metal, it is remarkably doomy and restrained, a slow dirge with a continual mystical lead over the top, as if it was carrying you through the gargantuan galactic ocean. The vocals are extremely sparse, and there are no apparent lyrics to the song, the vocals seem to be a mere isolated wail cropping up from time to time, as if they were coming from some damned soul in another dimension. The lack of lyrics just adds to the whole mystery of the 'journey'. Around the halfway mark, the first half of the song climaxes with a rather wild solo, and the song changes from a weightless journey into a freefall, capitulating into a serene reverie for a minute or two before the second half begins with an acoustic guitar playing a sorrowful and reflective melody, and then another despondent howl erupts from the depths before the slow, distorted guitar reappears but this time playing a rather majestic, almost militaristic riff, with the vocals intertwined with a large amount of echo on them which duly sees finish of this epic, twenty minute journey. It is remarkably original piece of music on this side of the split, a Black Metal Tangerine Dream is the best comparison I can come up with, with a significant amount of focus placed upon the ambience created by the synths and echoing guitar. Trähn has created a fantastic piece of work, a cosmic journey through the stars in a galaxy in which the nearest sun has long since burned out, and the only light is that emitted from distant stars. It's only one song, but if Nychts decide to release more material in future, they could easily be up there with Darkspace and Limbonic Art in exploring the final frontier.

Wedard are a band I am quite familiar with, but have always failed to grab my attention in the way so many others of their ilk can. Sternenfrost has a penchant for releasing a lot of his material on split EPs with other bands, but as is the case here, it usually just proceeds to prove how distinctly average Wedard's material is in comparison with the other band's material on the split. From the opening notes on 'Masochist', it's your plain old 'by the book' depressive Black Metal. The production is extremely condensed and the guitars and vocals are washed with excessive reverb and buried in the mix. The songs are fairly up-tempo, helped by the brisk drumming which is the best thing about Wedard, and always has been. Programmed or not, they are executed with fine professionalism, and help to shift the rather lack lustre music along and maintain some attention. One thing about the first song that is completely off setting are the numerous breaks that appear in the song, which I assume are there to break up certain 'movements' but only succeed in making the cd sound as if it's faulty or even gives the impression of an album sampler. That's not to say it's all as stimulating as watching grass grow though, 'Winter – My Final Chapter pt 1' starts with an exquisite, softly picked tune before morphing into a ferocious charge backed up by heavy blastbeats and turbulent guitar riffing, surprisingly similar to early Immortal, with a high pitched widdling lead guitar over the top. But again the song needlessly stops for another pointless interlude, cutting short the rather fantastic beginning, and leaves you just thinking to yourself.... “why?” before continuing with an off kilter lead guitar which sticks out like a sore thumb, and ruining what would otherwise be a great song. As with most DSBM bands, the biggest influences are drawn from Burzum, and again this is the case here, for the vocals are your average Varg like shriek, that is, when you can manage to hear them when they're not buried beneath ten tonnes of off key guitar work. The riffing is also heavily generic for most of these two songs, I can barely recall any riffs except for the first half of the second song.

If Wedard stuck to the faster, brutal style showcased on their second song then they could maybe begin to go places, but as it stands, it is otherwise bog standard Suicidal Black Metal, that so many other have done before, and produced better. Wedard will have their fans though that will like the material on this split, for it doesn't differ any from the rest of their back catalogue. It isn't bad as such, it is listenable, but why listen to this when I could easily just put on Nyktalgia instead who do it so much better?
You should still definitely pick up this split though if you can, if only for the shining piece of music displayed by Nychts though. This is highly original, trance inducing Black Ambient that needs to be heard.


70/100

Wedard Nychts



Thx to Robert Sun @ Sun & Moon