Nocternity - Nocternity EP (2012)

Few would accuse Nocternity of being one of the more prolific or 'busy' bands in their scene, but the empty aural landscape since their 2003 sophomore Onyx has at least been littered with some EP and split releases, not the least of which was the last, Harps of the Ancient Temples (2007), which was in my estimation the pinnacle of the band's subtly atmospheric sledgehammer approach to their genre. Five years hence, we are at last treated to a pair of newer tracks, but while they stay firmly on guard in the Greeks' aesthetic camp, they do absolutely nothing to further their position on the battlefield...

Nocternity have always been about creating this dark, distant and incredibly bleak envelope through which they pummel along at a barbaric pace, and here is no exception. The EP was recorded on an 8-track recorder, and it's certainly got a very oblique, murky feel, with the bass lines just as loud as the guitars and only the vocals and tinny tremolo melodies coming out on top. The drums offer little more than a mechanistic charge in the background, leaving the vocals and guitars to captivate the audience. Daemon of Limbonic Art replaces Whyrhd on the vocals this time, and he's got a sufficient enough, ghastly rasp to match the subdued din of the music, joined by some deeper growls that hover on the edge of perception. There are a few bright synthesizers implemented (in particular the late moments of the first tune "Titans"), and the bass is juicier than you'll normally hear on a stock black metal recording, but all of this is useless with songs so devoid of compelling riffs...

Each of the two tunes is a 'universe' until itself, with "Titans" being the faster paced, at the cost of seemingly unbroken cycles of monotony that had me checking my watch only about 2-3 minutes in. "River of Woe" is more spacious and experimental, with sparse percussion and a lot of guitars being used in a funereal sense or as sheer ambiance. Unfortunately, despite the variation of the pair, there is naught here but a pretty mundane 14 minutes of blackened emptiness that evokes only a sense of numbness and ennui. I did not exactly hold up high expectations, but Harps of the Ancient Temples at least had one kick ass tune and a fascinating Vangelis cover. The content this time around is incredibly dry and uninspired, so one has to wonder what else they've got going on these past five years? I'm sure Nocternity is more of a project than a full time thing, but even then...this draws blanks. The decision to record with older equipment is admirable and speaks of an impulse to really gnaw at the roots of black metal, but these guys are surely better than this.

Verdict: Fail [4/10]

http://www.myspace.com/nocternityofficial

Nocternity - A Fallen Unicorn EP (2004)

A Fallen Unicorn begins much like Nocternity's sophomore Onyx ended, with the contribution of a Vinterriket ambient piece that really sets the mood for the ensuing mayhem. Granted, the bright and soothing ebb and flow of the synthesizers creates a massive contrast to the blasted pace of "A Fallen Unicorn", which seems like a mix of old Emperor and Burzum with the tinge of angelic vocals hovering below the violent ballast. Though the beat here does grow monotonous, I actually quite enjoyed this, more so than any of the Greeks' prior fast paced material. The force with which the tremolo guitars collide into one another alongside the airy rasping is just as engrossing as anything on the prior album.

"The Emerald Serpent Prince" follows with an even deeper level of aggression, this time with more submerged, subdued guitars with less implicit melodies. I definitely felt that same swollen, epic envelope that I once experienced with De Mysteriis dom Sathanas or In the Nightside Eclipse, though the notation is not quite that catchy. On "To Grey Olden Shores", they finally shift the pace towards a slower, denser atmospheric march that somewhat breaks up the one track nature of the previous metallic content, and this particular track breathes the wonder and ichor that was inherent to Onyx or the debut En Orio, with all the subterfuge that the soaked walls of distortion can afford. Lastly, Nocternity has included this amazing, industrial/ambient cover of none other than Björk's "Pagan Poetry", totally unexpected and impressive, what with its crashing percussive waves, distant guitar fuzz and zephyr-like, snarled rendition of the vocals.

When it comes to selecting such tributes, Nocternity is in a league of its own (their version of the Vangelis Blade Runner theme on a later EP is also noteworthy), and in their able claws, the worldly pop is easily transmuted into the graphic hostility of a martial black ambiance. It's yet another example of the band's application of imagination into what is naturally a pretty stale medium for creativity. Yeah, a lot of their black metal blasting is redolent of a hundred or more other artists, but they dress this with the lyrics of the fantastical and mythic, the added covers, and some of the finer instrumental, non-metal sequences of any in the Hellenic scene. The lyrics are beautiful, and this is someone who generally rolls eyes at the fairytale appeal of the titular track. A Fallen Unicorn is thus another worthy item to track down if you approved of their previous release, and another step forward into the mists of passion, despair and potential.

Verdict: Win [8/10] (you must be either wicked or naïve)

http://kyrck.t35.com/main/nocternity_official.htm

Nocternity - Onyx (2003)

Though it's not a heavily riff-based record, Onyx is nevertheless a solid step forward for Greeks Nocternity, both in its production values and the level of immersion being transmitted through the airy, subterranean aesthetics of its compositions. You can hear a tad of En Oria's influence upon the sodden, sinking emotions dominating its track list, but really it feels like a fresh act. What is remarkable about the album is its ability to capture the listener with so little nuance and complexity, just a dark and consistent trip into the most shadowed alcoves of the writers' minds, and I admire that the band stick to their fascination for fantasy, with at least one song here devoted to George R.R. Martin's famous fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. Fuck, they even included chain mail links with the limited edition of the album...how cool is that?

"The Song of Hammers" is a curious choice to open the album with, being largely instrumental, but it's nonetheless monolithic in its breadth. Searing, distorted guitars hint at dissonance behind a steady, marching gait, with percussion crashes off in the background, and light synthesizers brooding in various, understated layers of atmosphere. The title track is more what you'd expect if you heard their Crucify Him EP, a blasted strongarm of raw black metal in the vein of Norse icons Burzum, Mayhem and Emperor, but still admittedly gloomy and spacious. But it's the 9 and a half minute epic "Secretya Ayra (The Key)" which gels it all together, a work of both dour atmosphere and teeming, simple black metal tremolo lines, with some killer lyrics and climactic, descending melody deep in the bridge. "Valyrian Steel (Blood of the Dragon)" is the above mentioned A Song of Ice and Fire tribute, and it moves with a callous and measured cruelty, while "The Red Dawn " has a great intro and some concrete, depressive guitars.

The outro here is performed by great German ambient/black artist Vinterriket, but its martial depth adheres pretty cleanly to Nocternity's over-arching devotion to ambient aesthetics. It's a nice touch. Ultimately, Onyx sounds rich without being excessively raw, and due to its 37 minute length, never quite wears out its welcome, so the Greeks really seemed to be coming together. The one element holding me back from appreciating the sophomore any further is simply that the guitar lines are often rambling and predictable. Their atmospheric envelope helps keep my mind adrift within the compositions, but if you were to examine them independently of their environs, they seem as if they'd be quite dull. Still, they are saved by the sum of the package, and Onyx is a decent album if you appreciate the grim, mythic, and fantastic. Or if you appreciate a thriving, dark space in which to watch your breath frost and wither.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (logic of the impossible)

http://kyrck.t35.com/main/nocternity_official.htm

Nocternity - Crucify Him EP (2001)

As solemn sharks yet reflecting on the blood of their latest kill, Greek imprints ISO666 and Nocternity were quick to collaborate on another release in the Crucify Him EP. This shorter work was a repository for the band's earlier material that did not conform to the sea goddess concept of En Oria, lyrically or aesthetically. Indeed, the songs written here are equally as vile and reproachful as far as their malevolent architecture, but they possess a more airy and volatile nature as if they were necrotic winds howling through some forsaken abyss or pandemonium. The riffs themselves do not deviate from the style manifest through En Oria, still a window into the Norwegian scene of the early 90s (Burzum, Mayhem, old Satyricon), but they do seem better constructed and less lethargic than the debut was often prone to be.

The intro, "Stella Tenebrarum", is not as impressive as the synthesizer pieces found on that submerged precursor, but more of a distinctly minimal ambiance joined by tranquil, clean guitars and light vocals. This creates an immediate contrast when the harsh but melodic titular track is engaged, slower, roiling tragedies alternating with accelerate bursts of streaming anxiety. I will say, though, that I found the earlier riffs to be predictable. It is the bridge here, with its return to clean string plucking and subsequent explosion into a more memorable melodic sequence, that I found more compelling. "Lunar Innuendo" begins with another ambient passage, but succumbs to more explosive blasting, before ultimately fading out to acoustics. My favorite track, though, is definitely the closer "Perdo Corporem", in which the threads of atmosphere are affixed to the bleeding, high velocity guitars and gnarled, oppressive vocals, giving of a hostile glamour redolent of Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse, sans the symphonic side.

In all, Crucify Him does feel slightly more consistent than En Oria in execution, though the lyrical themes of blasphemy, fallen angels and repression are not as intriguing. The Greeks seem to be inching toward the finish line here, without crossing it. For one, many of the faster paced rhythms fail to manifest in compelling rhythmic configurations: the unflinching speed might cast a vicious dimension to the proceedings, but the riffs themselves are often feel interchangeable, and there is little to set this apart from a wealth of European recordings throughout the mid to late 90s. That said, it's not bad, and the hellish mood and atmosphere are appropriate to its subject matter.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10] (raised to preach, raised to lie)

http://kyrck.t35.com/main/nocternity_official.htm

Nocternity - En Oria (2001)

The fantasy fanatic in me has to admire any band formed by a man who takes his stage name from a George R.R. Martin novel, and that is precisely what 'Khal Drogo' of Nocternity had done, long before the HBO Game of Thrones was televised into the living rooms of every bandwagon ignoramus who never had the patience to read the marvelous novels. In return, I find myself with the patience to listen through every recording this Greek project has released, which do admittedly vary greatly in quality. En Oria was the premiere full length and statement from the act, and perhaps the least interesting, but not without a number of noted strengths that would lie the roots for the stronger works Onyx and A Fallen Unicorn.

Nocternity does not much resemble those Greek contemporaries who placed the nation on the black metal grid, but instead takes its queues from the Norse and Swedish composers, its grim and grisly aesthetic placing it somewhere between Burzum and Bathory. The atmosphere of this album is very damp and dark, with Drogo's thick and simple guitars streaming an ichor of sadness alongside the drawn out, deeper snarling of the vocals. Tempos vary from the glorious, simple patterns of open chords used to transmit fist-raising exhilaration to the listener , to the straight nihilistic blasting we expect of the genre, but all of it sounds appropriately oblique, as if the riffs themselves take succor from the very shadows. That said, they aren't all that great, and often the songs will shift around through various schematics of dull and predictable notation, as is the case for "To the Shrine", "Enter the Rift of Chaos", or "En Oria" itself, none of which produce a single guitar riff that concerns me whatsoever (though the atmospheric interlude in the title track is acceptable).

But then, several are stronger in composition, like "The Drowning", which sets each new stage into emptiness up lavishly, with a mire of atmospheric organs forming an extensive bridge. Or "Queen of the Damned", in which a desperate surge of layered melodies again builds into another swath of open, eerie space. The keyboard passages that bookend the CD ("Night Omen", "Aura") are also rich and swelling despite the minimalism of their construction. I'm a sucker for a good synthesizer and these were absorbing enough that I actually found myself disappointed there weren't more throughout the track list. The production is dim and evocative without losing its clarity and focus, but ultimately the quality of the writing varies too much to give this a glaring recommendation, or really any at all. Half of the content is alluring and engrossing, and the other half rather too forgettable. Nocternity had not yet conceived its 'stallion to mount the world' here, but as it turns out, this would be a band to hone ears upon, who would move on to greater achievements in the near future.

However, I would like to point out that the concept behind this debut, which seems to wholly focus around an undersea goddess ('Umberlee' is mentioned, an evil ocean deity from the D&D setting Forgotten Realms) and the despair of sailors and seamen throw about and sunk below the tides, is pretty fucking cool, as are the lyrics written to explore it.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10] (and so my vessels sunk)

http://kyrck.t35.com/main/nocternity_official.htm

Nocternity - Harps of the Ancient Temples EP (2007)

Of late I've found myself re-visiting a lot of short play releases from the past decade, in particular from underground black metal bands whose full-length material has had me in stitches...not the laughing kind, but the kind you get to cover the open wounds some of this material is capable of carving into your skin and memory. Nocternity is a Greek black metal 3-piece who have issued a pair of decent albums and a few splits, but it's their 2007 Harps of the Ancient Temples EP which I have found the most hypnotizing. Granted, it is extremely brief, with only two tracks at around 11 minutes, and only one of these is an original...but this is definitely the direction I'd like to hear the band proceed in, for it would be likely to evoke a masterpiece of epic proportions should it manifest in a full-length effort.

Nocternity are a little difficult to pin down as far as their exact style, but that is also one of the things I enjoy about them. Not necessarily 'depressive' black metal, but extremely vacuous and grim, with the guitars forming several layers of melody over a slowly moving rhythm over 7 and a half minutes of the title track. For much of its playtime, it is highly repetetive, yet so engrossing that you are cycled far back through time to the vaulted halls of old Europa, in which the vision of the three is manifested as a sorrowed parting. Ravn and Khal Drogo (nice George RR Martin reference) have a subtle beauty to their guitars that truly mirrors the bloodstains of the fallen, whether they are wailing off into the subterranean strata or pushing an exhaustive, bristling distorted rhythmic pattern. The vocals here range from heavily affected narrative grunting to a black rasp that washes across the listener like a livid, sharp wind.

But not only do we have the great original track here...we also get a killer cover of Vangelis' "Crystal Tears - End Titles", from the Blade Runner soundtrack. This is one of the best ideas for a cover I've ever heard from a black metal band, and to top that, they really do it justice with some searing, distorted leads that cover the main synth melody, keeping the ambiance alive with the backing choral synths. Vangelis ist, of course, completely krieg and if this could serve as a gateway for more to discover the man's amazing work, so be it. Very classy of the Greeks to include this here on the EP, and puts it well over the top into the purchase category. An excellent, if brief effort here, and hopefully they can continue to thrill whenever they've prepared their 3rd full-length.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.myspace.com/nocternityofficial