Nachtmystium
Doomsday Derelicts
Candlelight Records
27 July 2009

by D. Meatbreak

Glossy, smoothly professional, slickly produced and clinically arranged; Nachtmystium’s first release since their critically lauded Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1 opus looks perfectly poised for success. Each of the four tracks does exactly what you’d want a Heavy Metal song to do, across the full spectrum – Thrash, Death, Black, Speed and onwards – there’s a dose of everything at equal intervals almost at the exact moment you expect them to happen; songs to order, dialed straight back at you from your socially-networked personal spec sheet. Meaning: some may hail this as the definite metal record of the year, others will take personal offence to it.

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The first of the four tracks, ‘Bones’, kicks in at a high tempo blasting forwards into an immediate surge of amphetamine metal, that doubles up in time signature for the choruses and drops right back to a half speed middle-8 before hitting it out to an abrupt finish.  The chugging speed-pop set up of ‘Life Of Fire’ is sturdy, assertive, euphoric and sure-footed (one from each member on an appropriately-tilted monitor), but this is least distinctive and featureless track of the four. ‘Hellish Overdose’ is an ode to Venom and 80’s Black/Thrash, with a money shot of a squalling wah-wah solo splashed across it’s back end,

Closing ‘Pitch Black Cadence’ features a lot of Slayer-style soloing, heavily reverbed delay on the guitars, and filter-tweaking on the Moogs – there’s no noticeably pitch black cadence, the vocals are far too throaty for that – but the drums’ martial stomp gives it a somewhat industrial finish in the vein of Marilyn Manson’s Antichrist Superstar.

Sounds good?  Yeah.  Well there’s the crux.

Watch Nachtmystium hooking up with Xasthur to cover ‘Beyond Light’

This is as instantly forgettable as it is enjoyable as it is shallow. No doubt a legion of kvlt BM fans will rage against the fresh scent of Mall Metal permeating the hallowed dankness of their scene, but this was never intended for purists of any form. There’s the sense that this is for fans of the history of Metal, or to dumb things down even further, it’s just a hell of a fun background record to throw on at some hairy keg party.  Conversely, there’s a total lack of soul, individuality or danger to any of this accurately-rendered exercise in completist nostalgia. High On Fire’s 2007 album, Death Is This Communion, did the same thing without any of the sense of calculated ambition, self-consciousness or cynicism that overshadows Doomsday Derelicts, but then that’s an album that truly reeks of the spirit of metal incarnate.

Full marks for historical accuracy, sliced in half for lack of effort.

3/6

Sounds like: High On Fire, Venom, Slayer
Top tracks: Bones, Hellish Overdose

Nachtmystium – Doomsday Derelicts tracklisting
Bones
Life Of Fire
Hellish Overdose
Pitch Black Cadence