Nachtmystium emerges from silence.
The band has been a fixture on the American Black Metal scene since 2000, despite the many upheavals that have punctuated its career, including repeated large-scale scamming operations. Believed to have disappeared four years ago, Blake Judd (vocals/guitar/bass/keyboards, Hate Meditation, ex-Drug Honkey, ex-Krieg) recruits Francesco Miatto (drums, Charun, ex-Coram Lethe), signs to Lupus Lounge and unveils Blight Privilege, his ninth album.
Matt Thomas (guitar), Ken Sorceron (bass, Abigail Williams, Vale of Pnath, ex-Lord Mantis, ex-The Faceless) and Andrew Markuszewski (lyrics, Lord Mantis, Devil with No Name, ex-Nachtmystium) also took part in the album’s creation.
It’s a sample that greets us on Survivor’s Remorse, the first track, and will accompany us through the first riffs, before the arrival of this wave of intense, visceral darkness. A few vocals struggle to emerge from the wave guided by screams, blast and intoxicating melodies coupled with majestic keyboards, but the track progresses into darkness before joining Predator Phoenix, a track for which a particularly provocative video has been created. The track stands out thanks to its particularly soaring leads, which contrast with the raw vocal parts and relatively upbeat rhythm, but the guitars become much more hazy and dissonant on A Slow Decay, creating a veil of melancholy and a certain gentleness. The contrast between violence and beauty is striking again, and hearing them dance together is particularly interesting, especially when the rhythm becomes more jerky before a soothing final, then Conquistador comes in to give a more Old School touch to the ambient aggression. The track just keeps getting hotter and hotter, barely returning to its initial rage to push the new wave forward, before giving way to Blind Spot, where dissonant harmonics meet a motivating basis, while also offering some well-crafted flights of fancy. Some passages are genuinely gentle, disturbed only by efficient drumming, but total tranquility resurfaces with The Arduous March, whose heavy atmosphere is transformed into an epic flight of fancy, whether in haunting slowness or warlike acceleration. The vocal parts add an ominous touch to the mix, then the drums ignite on Blight Privilege, the eponymous track, which returns to its impressive tones, but also features some relatively disquieting guitar parts, ceasing from time to time in a rather surprising way, but which correspond with the more psychedelic influences asserted and which will bring the album to a close.
Past mistakes aside, Nachtmystium delivers a rich and captivating new album. While Blight Privilege‘s raw Black Metal roots are definitely present, its creator offers us a majestic and heady vision of his art.
90/100
