Beginning straight off with a curiously Nile meets Melechesh bit of blackened death metal with ‘Broken’, this Russian band weave some North African and Middle Eastern melody through their somewhat technical death attack. Have to say in minutes you are very aware this lot are very well drilled; tight, sharp, melodic and battering. There’s a heavyweight bounce to it and lovely use of synth and piano sounds to thread that melody. It’s a cracking recording too; bright without being too slick, clear and sharp edges to the bludgeon and nice lower end grunt.
‘Aphosis’ follows the opener in style but with a more tech tinge to the riff as it chops and slows and snakes into guitar breaks. It’s cool that Ars Nocturna certainly don’t rely on one riff per song and aren’t afraid to stick some serious lead noodling in here. No idea what they’re on about with the snarled, screamed and growled gravel laden vocals, mind, as the lyric booklet is in Russian and unlike our multi-lingual scribe Slavica I’m a dunce at languages. Still, guessing Lovecraft obviously, staying close to Nyarlathotep’s ‘Pharaoh’ avatar rather than the Whisperer Of The Dark aspect.
‘Sancti Bestia’ slows things down, bordering on a little doomy edges that oddly reminds me a touch of CoF ‘From The Cradle To Enslave’ (and betcha no one else on the planet agrees….).
‘Ajattara’ has a glorious opening, almost punching melodeath with a dancing melody and some great vocals pushing it along. It is bright as sun off a sand dune with battering drums whipping it up harder before crunching down into a breakdown. It’s really impressive how adept these guys are on only their second album; they have their sound, their atmosphere and they can pen songs like this which I am sure are a huge ball of energy live. ‘Terror’ is a bit more straightforward melodeth, but still with a good heft of solid riff behind it. ‘Osiris’ on the other hand is just a fantastic swirl of melodies and whipcrack twists I have heard since the mighty Melechesh. Do have to say though that closer ‘Sine Te’ kinda sounds as though from a different album; don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine fine song but a short, rabble rouser of a track, a little push of punk into the vocals here and the feel. Still, all good.
I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy this; I am neither our resident death head (though I love the old school filthy stuff) nor the greatest fan of melodic death metal ( Aephanemer and Countless Skies aside) but that’s kinda why I review music – to be surprised, shocked and proved wrong. Ars Nocturna are a cracking band. They understand rhythm and twisting melodies. They write tight, focussed, interesting riffs and they write hooks into lean songs that never outstay their welcome. And at around 35 minutes neither does the album. Perfect length for this assault.
Death metal? Give this a serious look.
(8/10 Gizmo)
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