[markos]

from the aquarius site. at least they changed their name. anybody know if nifelheim had anything to do w/ that?

NIFLHEIM Neurasthenie (Sepulchral Productions) cd 11.98
Sepulchral is turning out to be one of our new favorite black metal labels, bringing us the blackened noise from the new grim frostbitten North, Canada that is, with the folk flecked Metal Noir Quebecois of Forteresse, the grim depressive buzz of Sombres Forets, and now this, the latest from doombuzz merchants Niflheim, whose latest is a sorrowful trawl through the dourest of human emotions, rendered in shades of black and grey, minor key melodies and miserablist plod, anguished wails and bleak buzz.
Neurasthenie, which means "a mental deviance which causes intense grief", in French, is a pretty apt title for Niflheim's latest, a slow burning, plodding, meandering chunk of harsh melancholia. The opening tracks is quite lovely, a simple slowcore drift, all clean guitar, sorrowful melodies, with some buzz draped over the top here and there merely as an afterthought, and a classical sort of outro, which leads into "The Cold Wind Of My Breath Is Always Blowing" (great title!) a gorgeous doomic plod, simple and sad, drenched in blown out crumbling distortion, strangely pretty as well as being harsh and hateful, think Nortt and Xasthur and the like, and these guys sound right at home in those hallowed halls of musical misery.
But the next track is something completely different, a haunting abstract slice of cinematic ambience, chunks of distorted guitar drifting in an expanse of shimmer and buzz, vocals super distorted sprawled out over the top like some black storm cloud, simple sad melodies, glistening guitar harmonics, eventually transforming into more depressive doom.
The rest of the record drifts back and forth between the two: spare, abstract guitar ambience, spacey swirling somber slowcore, dreamy instrumental minimalism, and buzz drenched blackness, crushing slow motion plod, depressive dirge, sometimes blending the two into something truly chilling and creepy, heavy and beautifully depressing.
The band have changed their name to Gris, since we got first got this in, so there's a slight chance that when we run out, the restocked version will be under the name Gris, but fear not, it will be the same miserably brilliant blackness inside....

[Mitch339]

not the same band at all

[markos]

[Mitch339]

[snaps666]