Nachtvorst (that would be Night Frost, I believe. As opposed to Nachtwurst which I read it as initially and wondered what the lyrical concerns could possibly be of a band called Night Sausage….) are a Dutch duo who apparently play ‘experimental black metal’. I say apparently not in any detrimental way but because I am becoming a little confused as to what record companies mean by ‘experimental’.

To what extent is this ‘experimental’ is a valid question because it suggests a new take on black metal as opposed to departing from the genre entirely and I’m not sure this is.

Now bear with me here. Please.

Opening track of their sophomore album, ‘The Serpent’s Tongue’ is a nice slice of doom/death flavoured music with the black metal style tortured vocals that are present throughout the album. Downbeat, slow and slightly ominous it creeps up on you until the light completely fades as some Neurosis style sombre notes push through. It’s a fair production that allows the music to be dense and it is a good entrance gate to the album as a whole. Dark, slow and heavy it leads us into a semi-classical interlude ‘After…’ and thence rather abruptly into ‘Nightwinds’ which is Opeth meets early Katatonia piece of galloping, tempestuous metal. ‘Gentle Notice Of A Final Breath’ follows which offers a blend of black metal and funeral doom that is somewhere between Abhor, Exiled From Light and Midnight Odyssey. A final interlude ‘…Before’ then slips into ‘ A Way Of Silence’ which is kind of Neurosis with black metal vocals with it’s heavy cascade riffing and soft interludes and an avalanche of the Alcest/Ameseours gone feral about it by the end and then sounds of an underground station or other creaking and rumbling machinery drowning out what might be voices.

Now from the above this should either be a bit of a mess or four completely unrelated sounding songs connected by a couple of interludes.

Well it certainly isn’t a mess. These are actually rather beautifully crafted, atmospheric set pieces, each pulling you on into their own dark world. Nor are they entirely stand alone songs; there is a thread of a journey here that binds it together as an album. It is as though you are slowly rising up through cavernous pathways hewn by nature into the blinking, streetlights of a man made train station. It is a curious journey.

I do still have reservations about the cohesion of these songs as an album but they are very finely executed and with a sense of purpose that I guess I don’t fully grasp. They actually cite doom, sludge, post rock and shoegaze as being incorporated into the sound, which will have the kvlt hordes running for the catacombs, and in truth it’s probably the best place for them when this is playing. Take out the vocal style and precious little of this is really black metal but who cares?

It is well composed, arranged and played atmospheric music. A little disconnected maybe, a pinch unfocused but if you like to stray towards the Ameseours, Opeth, Katatonia or proggy end of dark metal in general give it a whirl and see what you think. The worst criticism I have is that at this stage of their development they very much sound like the sum of their influences rather than Nachtvorst as a new entity.

With my added pessimism as to where all this post-rock and shoegaze in black metal is heading and that I can’t regard any of this as experimental, I still have to say that Silence is not bad at all.

 (6.5/10 Gizmo) 

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