Nachtmystium: Instinct: Decay (2006)
Years before he became the most hated man in heavy metal, not named Varg âCount Grishnackhâ Vikernes, Blake Judd (a.k.a. Azentrius) was instrumental to elevating American Black metal from a laughable concept to a viable, even highly respectable proposition.
By 2006, the Chicago-based ensemble had been haunting dank basements and bat-filled belfries in relative anonymity for nearly a decade, but I sagely predicted (for once!) that this was about to change in my effusive All-Music Guide review of the groupâs third long-player, Instinct: Decay.
Here, Nachtmystium hung on to their intentionally primal, lo-fi black metal roots, while simultaneously plunging over the abyss of progressive experimentation -- resulting in music that was streaked by multiple moods, dynamic density, and unexpected twists, while remaining uncompromising, heavy as fuck.Â
Take first song (following a brief intro called âInstinctâ) âA Seed for Suffering,â which delivers a visceral, desolate pounding before cracking like an egg to reveal a stark acoustic bridge worthy of Portland folk-metal stars Agalloch, then embarks on a violent coda filled with harmonic nuances.
Other notable cuts include âChosen by No One,â which blends frenetic riffing with groovier sections and near-symphonic synth layers, âEternal Ground,â with its unusually musical guitar solo and Darkthrone-like black ânâ roll riffs, and âHereâs to Hoping,â which turns square-dancing into slam-dancing with its folksy polka rhythms.
And, for those less inclined to deviate from the trve/cvlt path, Nachtmystium offer some pure carnage in the buzz-saw riffs and blast-beats of âThe Antichrist Messiahâ and âAbstract Nihilism,â prior to descending into tribal psychedelics of the closing âDecay.â
All in all, I surmised that Instinct: Decay was a masterful effort: at once retro and avant-garde but, most importantly, well composed and devilishly entertaining from start to finish.
p.s. -- Many of these words were updated and adapted from that old All-Music Guide review.
More Third Millennium Black Metal: Absuâs Tara, Agallochâs Ashes Against the Grain, Cobaltâs Slow Forever, Darkthroneâs Hate Them, Death Fortressâ Among the Ranks of the Unconquerable, Enslavedâs Monumension, Horrifiedâs Deus Diabolus Inversus, Impaled Nazarene's Ugra-Karma, Locrianâs Territories, Melecheshâs Emissaries, Morbid Slaughterâs A Filthy Orgy of Horror and Death, NegurÄ Bungetâs âN Crugu Bradului, Oranssi Pazuzuâs Valonielu, Rebel Wizardâs Triumph of Gloom, Rotting Christâs Theogonia, Sighâs Imaginary Sonicscape, Unholy Crucifixâs Ordo Servorum Satanae, Vattnet Viskarâs Settler, Watainâs Sworn to the Dark, Wild Huntâs Before the Plane of Angles, Windirâs Likferd, Wolves in the Throne Roomâs Malevolent Grain, Zemialâs Nykta.
