Nazgash come to us from Spain and this is their second full length of melodic black metal with plenty of synths. Now, I lived in the 1990s, so I was subject to the waves of melodic black metal coming out of Europe back then. Most of those bands are now forgotten. This record reminds me of that style and time, and seems like it's right out of that era of so-called black metal bands. I say so-called because there is something missing in this style that all good black metal has, and that's a dangerous atmosphere. This music seems too kind, too nice, to be proper black metal. See, black metal is more than a musical style. It's an attack on the mainstream, both musically and ideologically. There isn't anything about this album that screams "be afraid" or "run away." In fact, this isn't much more than extreme heavy metal marketed as black metal with harsh vocals. There's nothing wrong with it otherwise, other than the songs are a bit boring. I just want more from black metal than this. Your mileage may vary of course, if you're a sucker for melodicism. That's up to you to find out. The album cover is absolutely killer, though.
