vote
6.5
- Bands:
NOKTURNAL - Duration: 00:40:03
- Available from: 03/05/2024
- Label:
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Pulverised Records
A few sparse guitar notes introduce the long instrumental “Bewail The Fallen Light” by Nokturnal, a new band from Indonesia and made up of four hooded figures of whom, according to the bio, only the identity of one is known – the writer I’m not much of a fan of biographical notes in reviews but know that this time, this is really all we know about Nokturnal. For their part, they start off rather well, attracting a certain interest with a musical offering that is quite unusual for their geographical location.
In fact, the genre played is neither brutal ferocious nor satanic black-thrash as usually happens in those parts, but rather death metal with dark influences in line with that proposed by In Solitude, Sweven, Tribulation (and partly from Chapel Of Disease and Ketzer). The repetitive and dark guitar texture of the first, long composition is perfectly in line with the mysterious image that the group wants to give of itself, given that it is a structurally very simple but rather long piece. As a counterbalance there is the second “Dagger Of Will” which is a death metal ride very close to the stylistic module of the aforementioned Tribulation (middle period) and the more progressive world of the Morbus Chron and Sweven formations: faster parts, sudden acoustic breaks and a hoarse voice reminiscent of Grave and Entombed to dominate all the various instrumental movements.
The overall effect of the song is remarkable, but it is also very close to what the aforementioned tutelary deities have done, an impression reconfirmed by the subsequent “Chainless Soul” which is constructed as a hybrid of dark-rock and proto-death metal still similar to Tribulation from a decade ago (let’s remember, they made a pre-celebrity passage on Pulverised with their debut “The Horror” way back in 2009, in an infinite game of references).
About halfway through the album the pleasure of listening is notable, but little by little, in our opinion, a very strong sense of déjà-vu arises linked to the influences of the mysterious Indonesian musicians: in this way the structures are pleasant, but at the same time truly derivative tempo, in addition to the fact that not all the songs are structurally able to stand on their own, especially in the second part of the album where the surprise effect has now vanished.
Overall, therefore, Nokturnal manage to manage a somewhat naive but certainly successful debut: for our part, we hope that they can evolve just enough to allow them to acquire more personality. If you still miss the bands mentioned several times in the review and ‘want more’, this is probably one of the finest tributes made to this subgenre in the last decade.
