From their first two demos in 2018 and then their breakout self-titled debut album the following year, NACHTIG have stormed the gates of sadness with some of the most soul-penetrating black metal melancholy of recent times. Mainman V. V. is no stranger to the scene, of course, numbering as he does labelmates VALOSTA VARJOON and COSMIC BURIAL, but NACHTIG is arguably his most personal project, on myriad levels. The successive Der stille Wald full-length in 2021 proved this with a passion and poignancy that was spellbinding - and spellbindingly SAD - to behold.
That album maintained a monolithic aspect at a towering 55 minutes, and thus does NACHTIG return with a comparatively more compact record in Eisig' Romantik. It's still epic, to be sure - four songs in 45 minutes, each one hovering around the 11-minute mark - but it's the sensations within that truly render the album an EPIC of breathtaking, daresay-beautiful sadness. Its predecessor spiritually nodded to early '90s doom-death, with the Spartan piano of yore largely replaced by a haunting fog of synths; Eisig' Romantik maintains a purer black metal core, but the synths hover ever more dramatically here, often directing the crescendo of emotion to cathartic heights - or, rather, depths. But it's V. V.'s characteristically heartaching riffing that really pushes the record into the halls of greatness, as layers of majestically melancholic riff seamlessly twine into said synths and utterly damning catharsis continues as each minute builds and blends and builds some more, all without dipping down the tempo. There's actual energy to this sadness, and it MOVES.
Completed by a plausibly professional production that doesn't negate the raw grit of emotion, NACHTIG's Eisig' Romantik is bound to be the year's saddest black metal record - and one of the most engrossing.
Mit „Sankareiden Maa“ feiert das mittlerweile nach Finnland übersiedelte Projekt des Linzers Hugin das 25-jährige Jubiläum und legt dafür nun ein volles Album vor. Feinster Pagan Black Metal.
he Compilation CD contains their 2 first Demos "Invocation of Doom" and "Sadistic Body Rites" from 2013 and also the Songs from the "Rex Judaeorum" Split 7" from 2015. First time on CD limited to 300 copies
This is the very first album released by true Norwegian black metallers Emperor. As one of the founding fathers of the symphonic wing of the genre, Emperor have a highly dramatic sound, balancing melodic dark synth melodies with ferocious howling forward movement. 'In The Nightside Eclipse' is reissued via ICARUS.
No other words are necessary: ancient-days Teutonic black metal continues to be on the rise, and EISENKULT are leading the charge with Vulgäre, deutsche Hassmusik!
FROSTEN is the most recent creation of prolific UK underground veteran Azrael, who also numbers such entities as Heathen Deity, Helvellyn, Torver, and now-labelmates THY DYING LIGHT among his many current endeavors. As FROSTEN, the duo of Azrael and session drummer Julian Foster play True English Black Metal.