Nihilistic black metal and beating death: that seems to sum up the essence of this trio from Belgium. A suitably spooky and sinister atmosphere sets us on our way before the anticipated explosion and fire. The mastering is done by the gentleman responsible for Belphegor, while the cover art is by the man responsible for similar work with Dark Funeral. There are elements of both these bands but especially Dark Funeral as Serpent Oath’s ferocious black metal continues unabatedly, seemingly coming from a viperous pit and slowing down only to allow dark utterances. Thus is “Speaking in Tongues”. There is control in these assaults, and typically there are transformations between these dark passages of extreme metal.

This album is punctuated by spooky off stage interludes like the opener. I’m not convinced that really added anything. It would have been if integrated into the main pieces. As for the main pieces, I became benumbed after a while. “Malediction” left me cold in spite of its intensity. “Serpents of Eight”, which followed, has more variety and atmosphere and if you’re ok with “We are serpents” as a chorus, you can sing along too. But ultimately it’s all treading a similar evil path. “Serpents of Eight” breaks off to the briefest of groans and heavy breathing, before we go “Into the Abyss”. At point it slows down and I really thought that Serpents Oath could have put us through the ringer, but it’s all too brief and the furious controlled assault returns. “The Beast Reborn” provides another blast in the vein of Dark Funeral. The passage at the end dies a death and it’s a shame it doesn’t lead to anything. “The Swords of Night and Day” is a welcome breath of rancid air, and that’s our lot apart from a 70 second atmospheric outro. People are moaning and echoing, and there’s a funereal air but again this switch from the world of fire to this one just tells me that there are two worlds on the same album with little overlap between the two.

I acknowledge that this is intense black metal, but I struggled to be either uplifted or downtrodden by “Nihil”. Technically it’s fine and the structures of the songs themselves are well controlled, although I thought the interludes were overdone and detracted from rather than heightened the overall intensity. “Nihil” isn’t a bad album at all but nothing new was opened in my ears here.

(6/10 Andrew Doherty)

https://www.facebook.com/serpentsoath

https://soulsellerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/nihil