Nargathrond celebrates sadness.
Created by Stefan « Your Horror Guy » Lorenz (As We Fucked, Higurd) in 2015, the project loves unusual mixes of influences. In 2024, it announces the release of Mourning Season, its new EP.
Nightmares Coming lets us progress very slowly through a cold, desolate landscape, first populated by piano and then by haunting riffs, which eventually fade out to make way for Mourning Season and its howls of despair. Drums add a more energetic touch to hazy riffs, soothed by backing vocals and heady keyboards which sometimes set a more comforting, even joyful tone, before the sound darkens with Haunt Of Feelings and its Old School tones. Aggression seems to guide the musician on this track, but a more melancholic contrast can be heard on certain passages, as on Forest Loneliness and its airy notes that meet pure darkness. The lament progresses gently, with piercing leads and terrifying screams adorning the hypnotic rhythm, before we reach So Far Away, a track with a relatively calm atmosphere at times, as when clean vocals and bass/drums duo guide us through the darkness before inviting the guitar to join them, then igniting one last time to close the EP.
Although steeped in musical experimentation, Nargathrond remains rooted in Depressive Atmospheric Black Metal on Mourning Season. The EP is an easy listen, offering a wave of gripping melancholy.
85/100