Chris Black may be famous of late for his High Spirits band, but this is his original band that has been going since 1995 and listening to ‘Nobody There’, it’s clear it’s Black’s vocals, albeit a slower tempo than the High Spirits material.
The music is a variation of traditional metal, with many doom influences included starting with ‘Alien’ and moonlighting into the much darker ‘Damn You’. ‘Xiphias’ and ‘One Eyed Sister’ have slight folk music feelings, due to the resulting vocal tone, it all sounds warm and compelling, and is actually rather redeeming. Other tunes like ‘Hands of Death’ expel a touch of Sabbath, but more the ‘Headless Cross’/’Tyr’ era with Tony Martin, more straight metal but still a touch gloomy and slower in tempo.
At the tail end of ‘Damn You’ the tempo increases and merges directly into the next track ‘Not Your Night’ which has some surprising black metal drum patterns (there are Nachtmystium connections here too historically with Chris Black). Thereby lies the enigma of this release, but there is more, just wait and read! This release has a somewhat challenging aspect, there are many variations of musical style, but for me the standout WTF moment is ‘Funeral Child’. I am sure there is no guest appearance, but if there was ever a perfect tribute to vocal falsetto style to the great Kim Bendix Petersen (aka King Diamond), then you have this here. Musically it retains the Mercyful Fate darkness and time signatures, it’s quite surprising but very fulfilling and an awesome tune.
All in all though, this is confusing as there is clearly some development based on their previous material, there is a touch of inconsistency later in the release, but I actually find this more of a personal preference. With that in mind, overall the album is cool, it has passion (especially the solo during ‘The Burning of Home’), but it just lacks a spark to make the whole album completely fulfilling but it is a release I am sure High Spirits fans will find interesting even if very different in musical sub-genre/style.
(7.5/10 Paul Maddison)
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