Genre: Black Metal
Country: Greece
Label: Drakkar Productions
Year: 2015
Plague has come again and the stench of human decay has permeated once more in the already suffocating atmosphere of a big city like Athens. It was not only the almost unbearable heat of past summer that amplified the rotten air but also the return of NADIWRATH to full-length releases. Despite “candy” (split releases with HEXENMEISTER and DODSFERF and last year’s “Chaotic Blasphemy” 7’’ EP) they’ve offered us between the magnificent, septicemic “Nihilistic Stench” and the brand new “Circle Of Pest”, our sick appetite demanded another full-length album.
However, should we have learned something from Nadir and his companions until now, this must have been that we simply cannot expect a sterile replay of past releases. While, until now, they stood firmly between hateful punk and suicidal blackmetal madness, they now add an aura of determined and straightforward aggressiveness by incorporating into their style some more traditional metal guitars (“A New Humanity”) as well as some thrash logic (“No Pity For Your Kind”) here and there, all painted as always with the blackest of colors. It feels like they have elevated from the rotten world described in “Nihilistic Stench” (and their subsequent releases) and they praise its death while they herald the coming of a new one.
Of course, the above does not mean that we are listening to an entirely different band or that the tracks sound unfitting. Almost all of the elements that once drew us to the crypts of NADIWRATH are here; the bitter guitar passages in the veins of CARPATHIAN FOREST, the disgusted shrieks of Wrath and the raging drums from Maelstrom (quite a performance once again). The opening track “Inner Commitment” (lengthiest one in the record running over 8 minutes) functions perfectly as a pathway starting where “Memories Are Dead” ended towards the new face of the band; a new face which clearly commands us: “attack, attack, ATTACK!” until we are for good and forever over with the pathetic human kind. So, attack it is, until we reach the ending of “Heading Towards Absolute Darkness” where disharmonic leads and deep bass guitar imply rather obviously that all hope is gone.
The special entity of NADIWRATH does not deserve to remain underestimated among the Hellenic scene. In their eight years of existence they were never afraid to rearrange the elements of their music or to make steps towards new directions. On the other hand, they always avoided big words and maybe that’s why they lack yet the status that suits them. But if someone lets themselves to be carried away from the negative energy released by that band, then they would probably understand why NADIWRATH is a terrifyingly precise depiction of the world around us. There is no salvation…
5/6
