NACHTSCHWARZ (ITA) – Abysmal ruin, 2021

Have you ever sat outside in the winter smoking a cigarette? Just listening to the cold air and taking in each puff while contemplating life around you? Perhaps you’re doom scrolling on Twitter or anything else and just getting increasingly mad about how fucked the world is. NACHTSCHWARZ on their debut EP, Abysmal Ruin, gives you this exact feeling.

They kick off with «Beneath the Grave» a song as serious as it sounds. It starts off atmospheric catching the listener perfectly off guard only to kick in moments later with jaws that won’t let go of you until the final note of «Eternal Grief» leaving you with a sense of eternal grief that it’s already over. Lyrically and musically there’s a sense of urgency contained in the album that lets you know that NACHTSCHWARZ is serious about their beliefs and you should take them seriously about it.

One of the high points about this album is that lyrically it flirts with depressive black metal but it retains that death-black metal sound. But they’re not your run-of-the-mill DSBM lyrics. They’re both introspective and outrospective. They see how the world is turning out and are pissed off and depressed because the ones that should be held accountable are not taking action. It’s the feeling of both being alone and wanting to do something but struggling with nihilism without actually slipping into it.

Overall this album leaves the listener ready to repeat it and digest it more. It’s both hopeless and hopeful. It’s alone together. To truly put it, Jesus fuck, what an album.