Let you be mesmerized by Negative or Nothing’s darkness.
Founded in 2007 in Chile, it is as a duo that Nhiver (guitar/bass/vocals, Animus Mortis, ex-Austral Nox) and A.V. (drums, Putrid Evocation, Uttertomb) offer us Drowned, their second full-length.
With the help of M. Desolatvm (M.C.C., Nox Desperatio, ex-Okkvlt) for some drum parts, the band offer us six songs of a very ambient DSBM. The album has to be listened as a single piece, without break or interruption, while melodic leads meet an ice-cold and impenetrable rhythmic basis, on which ghostly vocals alights. Tempo changes according to tracks, but the ambience tends to be the same, between the raw sound of Vmbra, the airy Animadversario of which blast contrasts with those mesmerizing harmonics, or the slow and melancholic Insomnvs. A worrying voice sometimes joins the vocalist’s howlings of suffering then Anomia offers us a short instrumental rest thanks to suffocating keyboards. Oppression comes back stronger with Mersvs and its dark rhythmic that sometimes slows down to continue to make us suffocate under its riffs, then it will end with Intransitive. This last song combines melodicity, nostalgy and languor before letting us poke our head over this ocean of blackness.
With Drowned, Negative or Nothing offers a sink into the heart of darkness. This wave of suffering permanently falls upon us, offering only brief moments of respite before seizing us again.
85/100