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Nachtmystium > Instinct: Decay > Reviews
Nachtmystium - Instinct: Decay

Nachtmystium - Instinct: Decay - 90%

RevengeISeek666, May 17th, 2010

Since the mid-2000’s, the American black metal underground scene –bringing to mind France’s as well – has been observed and studied carefully by most reviewers and critiques, often climbing up to critical praise subsequently and many bands belonging to it ended on many of their year-end lists; bands such as Xasthur, Leviathan, Wolves in the Throne Room, Krallice, Twilight and possibly even Agalloch. All of these recent outfits brought something new to the table of this satanic sub-genre, something more avant-garde and experimental. However, one band that has to be given credit to go beyond the dwelling basement-studio quality of the aforementioned bands is Nachtmystium and their 2006 effort, Instinct: Decay; an album that simply spawned the USBM scene with bold moves from the Chicago boys, going from underground misanthropy to rewarding recognition.

Why do they deserve such credit with this album? They simply added elements to it that, at first, might seem calculated and almost weird, but fit extremely well in my opinion. Think of it as “psychedelia”, a term coined by many critics over the past few years to qualify this “new” sub-genre of black metal. While it might seem a little bit cliché, it does describe what they are trying to do, especially from Blake Judd, main vocalist and guitarist of the band (formerly known as Azentrius at the time). E-bow experimentation, ethereal distortion, fuzzy acid-rock tones inspired by the 70’s psychedelic music and spacey-induced sampling, these elements are omnipresent during the entire album, even though the album is still anchored deeply in black metal with the depressing and harsh production.

Starting with the hallucinating interlude “Instinct”, you get a preview of what’s to come with the elements that I mentioned not long ago. It’s ethereal and bleak, but it’s psychedelic and ambient to the end. “A Seed for Suffering” follows immediately afterwards and the track lives to its name. It’s dominated by Judd’s anguished screams (very understandable at some point too), drenched drumming and simply put fuzzy, yet appealing riffs. After 3:10, an enormous change happens when acoustics appear and a distant, yet crystallizing lead emerges second to second. Afterwards, the song explodes with the same hallucinatory lead. It’s mesmerizing enough to captivate you and otherworldly enough to project your soul everywhere in the universe. The lead is constantly playing and repeating the same chords, again and again until the end of the song. The bass and drums only complement this effective manoeuvre, a memorable one from Judd I might add. “Chosen By No One” is raw, almost punk-ish at some point. Nevertheless, it manages to introduce more psychedelic overtones with impressive distant chords, satisfying drum rolls near the second half of the song and a more ambient side to it as well. Another highlight is “Here’s to Hoping” with the same characteristics as the other two brilliant songs, but ending with an enormous bang; furious blast-beats, the now-trademark distant overtones and Judd’s ever-raucous shrieks.

Don’t let your hopes down because of all these new elements. The band is still ferocious and merciless at times. “Keep Your Eyes Open”, “Eternal Ground” and “Abstract Nihilism” are fast, cathartic while still retaining a psychedelic atmosphere. “The Antichrist Messiah” is probably the most intense and aggressive song on this record with the frantic blast-beats, the scathing riffs and the demonic, foreboding vocals of Mr. Judd himself. After this remarkable journey, the album ends delicately with the instrumental interlude (the second one of this album) “Decay”.

With Instinct: Decay, Nachtmystium have proven that they are on a league of their own. Somewhat, they revolutionized the USBM for the better and they have invented something new that cannot be compared to anything else out there today. With the following works, most importantly Assassins, the band can look forward into the future without forgetting their past, but knowing that they can’t repeat themselves in a sub-genre that, while varied, can be extremely redundant at times. They perfectly achieved just that.

Note : 90/100

Standout tracks : A Seed for Suffering, Chosen By No One, The Antichrist Messiah and Here’s to Hoping

Abstract. - 70%

Perplexed_Sjel, September 15th, 2008

‘Instinct: Decay’ surprised me when I initially heard it. I was expecting another black metal onslaught, but that isn’t precisely what this record is all about. Instead, to me, this symbolises the movement away from black metal and on to a far more psychedelic road, which has been confirmed by the arrival of the latest effort, which isn’t black metal at all, ‘Assassins: Black Meddle Part I’. In terms of comparing it to previous records, one feels one cannot do that due to the aforementioned fact that this record isn’t the same as the others. Having said that, I can appreciate this record for what it is and do genuinely like it. In terms of the previous material, to me, this record is far better than the first effort, but not as good as the second.

So, moving away from the traditional black metal view of Nachtmystium, what does this effort have for us? Lots, being the answer. Take the best song on the record, as an example, ‘A Seed For Suffering’. This song displays a tendency to delve further into the realm of psychedelic music with bags of experimentation attached to it. The acoustic passages, even the vocals are all different from the previous record and in some ways, that’s a positive thing. Whilst I very much enjoy ‘Demise’, that era of black metal was lost in the sea of mediocrity that surrounded it. This experimental viewing of black metal and metal in general, is far more accessible. Even to those who don’t consider themselves fans of the black metal genre. The thing that remains the same, as it was on ‘Demise’, is the influence of atmosphere on proceedings. Due to the highly experimental setting that Nachtmystium have laid down, the atmosphere changes a lot in terms of emotional response. Like the previous effort, aggression and anger are explored, mostly on drums with heavy use of the cymbals, double bass and snare attacks. This record is much more dynamic though in terms of soundscapes and the emotions they inhabit. Songs like ‘A Seed For Suffering’, with it’s glorious solos and ‘Chosen By No One’ with it’s distortion laden luxurious depictions

The idea behind this record seems to me to be about setting down a formulated atmosphere and exploiting it for all it’s worth using layered guitars, one of which is brilliant in producing spectacular leads. The vocals, as stated, have altered slightly. They are rasping, but to a lesser extent than they were on ‘Demise’. In my opinion, these vocals would be far more accessible to metal fans than the previous exploits on the microphone. Whilst the vocals don’t prove to be an integral part of life for Nachtmystium, they do have there uses. First, using the vocals as another instrument. Vocals are meant to supply whatever emotion it is you’re looking to fuse your music with. For example, if you’re wanting an aggressive atmosphere, you use aggressive vocals. The soundscapes here are varied, which keeps the record interesting throughout. Vocally, the record is substantially weak in comparison to ‘Demise’, but it doesn’t devalue the ambiguous nature that the ambient experimentations afford to the record. Lyrically, I’ve never paid too much attention to Nachtmystium as black metal bands never usually write lyrics I can relate to as much as other bands, in other genres might do.

Another disappointing aspect would be bass. The bass is there to solidify the soundscapes that the layered guitars are creating almost by themselves, but it’s output isn’t as significant as the guitars, which is disappointing. One feels that if the bass had been as dynamic as some of the other elements, then perhaps it wouldn’t have been left behind, to dwell in darkness. The overall sound of the bass is too dark for the record. Considering the production doesn’t allow for any light and airy elements to shine through, the bass would need to be as hard edged as the guitars and the often crashing drums, but it’s sound isn’t as loud or fierce. Of course, the main emphasis is never going to be on bass for a band with such high levels of distortion, unless the guitars are omitted, which would be rather pointless considering they create the atmosphere that the band relies heavily on. There are stages where the bass does have it’s say, of course, like on ‘Abstract Nihilism’ which displays the bass in a positive manner, but there isn’t enough involvement for my liking. Decent, but not great is the verdict.

Plagiarize: Get Paid - 0%

Diarrhea_Face, June 17th, 2008

This to modern listeners is genius?? You must first ask yourself who is the modern listener? The modern ear can be tricked and deceived into believing that such work is worthy of some noterity, or even praise. Well this molested child, is just that, a fucking mannequin of the underground. A plastic, frail duplicate of what once was a real intention, of what once was a real movement. These video game playing, shopping mall beauty pageant rejects are what's to be offered in much of the U.S. and from such a stalwart of fashionability as century media records. When they caught wind of this band I can quite clearly see why they were unable to resist signing them.

The music itself is utter recycled bullshit! If you take certain tracks for instance, such as Antichrist Messiah, it is a pure ripoff of the old school primitive bands such as Beherit, though more so I believe he ripped this off from the modern Canadian band Conqueror. Throughout this album you hear not just a ripoff of great original bands such as Beherit, but also great American bands like Judas Iscariot; they are both from Illinois so this probably won't come as a shock to many. Another almost direct ripoff I heard on this came in some of the melodies they use from MGLA. All in all the better part of the album just drives through like a comatose patient. They play either shoegaze style drone or in a Darkthrone inspired black 'n roll. Overall it's very monotonous and very boring, with little variation other than perhaps when they turn up the delay knob all the way and scrape their picks along the strings to try and make people trip out.

If there is anything original about this band you could say that it's their ability to cloak their influences under loads of studio effects. The insane amount of guitar layering they've done to produce a warm washed out sound isn't a bad idea and so I will give them some credit. Ultimately what I dislike about this band as a whole is that they are extremely money minded and have built their fanbase through massive touring (with any and all takers), merchandising, marketing, networking etc. They have disgraced this music for exposure and to line their pockets. Rockstar attitudes and aspirations are not welcome in underground metal, especially black metal.

To sum up this album just take already worthless modern black metal, add a rock 'n roll producer and a few bluesy guitar lines to the mix and you've got Instinct: Decay. They try and pull themselves off as some type of front runners when they are just merely groupies, if that, of the metal genre. They have very well produced albums, which convey no emotion and nothing beyond the abundant superficiality that you find in this music today.

Psychedelic in metal? - 89%

Barad_dur, December 11th, 2007

Ok.
Its finals week here at the college, its winter outside and cozy next to the fire. I’m sitting here, my headphones turned up as high as they go. What album is in my computer while I study?

Instinct: Decay

The first time I had heard this band was on their tour with 1349 and Goatwhore. I am an avid black metal fan and have been for quite some time. I have just come across the American scene in just the past year or two, originally considering it to be mere darkthrone and burzum cloning. Shit was I mistaken. I have found that bands like Leviathan and its counterpart Lurker of chalice, Wolves in the throne room and now finally Nachtmystium have come to light.

I have not listened to their earlier primitive albums but I would like to in reference to this album. This album, wow, I mean, it has been a long time since I got this into a new band. Seeing them live took me totally by surprise, they opened amazingly before the lesser band Goatwhore.

This album seems to attract a lot of negative attention. This is probably because of lead man discouraging the label of black metal and now they are considered psychedelic/experimental metal. Does this capture the true nature of the music? Not entirely. However, this music goes quite in hand with the drug LSD. This is probably the best point of the album. Never have I heard any black metal band take on psychedelic attributes and have it come together so smoothly. Its quite amazing, the atmosphere on this album, it grows and permeates in the room. It is like an LSD trip in the middle of the winter, the dark sky above and the auditory hallucinations, bare trees climbing into the sky. It goes without saying that this is an album of different sorts than that of your typical black metal band.

The guitar on this album is very impressive, both in production and creativity. It melds traditional black metal riffing with thrash sensibilities and of course the indescribable psychedelic melody and chaos. The drums are completely and utterly important to this album, with them you would not find the groove of the riffs. The blast beats always sound wonderful in the thick production. The bass is quite inaudible so its hard to rate that, but knowing the feeling of the album you can tell its there in its drone distorted existence.

The only real problem with this album is that it could have done a lot more with the innovative force behind the idea of a psychedelic black metal record. I can see that this bands next album could be that much better in taking a step forward with the idea.

You're Black Metal, deal with it. - 80%

DrSeuss, November 9th, 2007

This band is extremely well known in the Illinois/Chicago Black Metal scene. In fact, I'd almost have them up par with Judas Iscariot as far as how influential they are to this area. If you're going to listen to this band, this is the album to start on, the older albums are completely different than this, and quite frankly, a lot worse than this.

I don't really understand where they get off saying that they're "Psychedelic Extreme Metal", but whatever floats your boat I suppose. This album is more or less raw Black Metal with some Post-Rocky elements. The tracks flow very well together, almost too well. It starts to sound like the same song over and over after a while until you can start differentiating them with the random Noise/Post parts in each song. Each instrument is played up to what is expected in most Black Metal, it's solid, but not spectacular. They do add some nice elements into their playing though. The acoustic interlude and droney solo in A Seed For Suffering is probably the staple of this album. The vocals, well, are vocals. That's all I can really say about them, pretty much stock BM vocals. The drums are solid and some interesting beats are thrown in, but there is plenty of blasting. The bass is audible, but nothing too interesting seems to be going on there.

Good song writing over all, it's epic, and has some intriguing elements, the experimentation gets kind of pretentious at points, and seems sort of forced, as if they were trying to put themselves apart from the Black Metal scene. I like the direction this album went for, hopefully on the next album they'll get more mature about what they want to sound like, because at this point they really have no identity as far as genre goes. It's good, it's solid, but nothing spectacular.

Psychedelic Black Art... - 97%

MorturomDemonto, June 22nd, 2007

I'm not that big of a Black Metal fan, but the occasional record that recieves great acclaim in the underground does eventually come to my attention. Nachtmystium are one of these bands.

One could pretty much say that Nachtmystium is the equivalent of Black Metal having slow sex with Pink Floyd. Just listen to "A Seed For Suffering".

I enjoy the production on this record. When a Black Metal band overproduces the "raw" sound, or goes for an utterly clean sound, they just completely ruin the atmosphere or just ruin the whole record. Nachtmystium wins for their production. It is perfectly balanced. Not too clear, somewhat muddy. Onto the review.

The guitars are phenomenal. There are absolutely no generic, standard or typical Black Metal riffs here. These are all pretty much progressive to an extent and are all varied. The lead work and solos are fabulous. The guitarists have really been able to catch the essence of what psychedelic lead work sounds like. The drums are in between slow and mid-paced, with the occasional blastbeat or punk rhythm. They add more of a feel and groove to the music than just constant blasting. The vocals are your typical Black Metal scream/shriek and well they obviously fit the music well.

Otherwise, if you are a true fan of old-school Black Metal, this might not be the record for you, but if you are open-minded and willing to try something new, with a twist, then I recommend this to you all the way.

Nothing short of incredible. - 100%

woeoftyrants, May 1st, 2007

While Nachtmystium have certainly been the underdogs of USBM, living in the shadows of larger bands like Krieg and Leviathan, the ground-breaking Instinct:Decay quickly and fiercely breaks the Darkthrone-worshipping motif that made this band in their earlier days. Instinct:Decay is a daring, progressive, and experimental black metal album that shatters old barriers and all the while stays true to the aesthetics and atmosphere of the genre. Azentrius proves himself as a composer and musician by truly striking into his heart and soul to dig for the music, and the result is nothing short of amazing.

Instinct:Decay is a pure artistic progression without bounds, unlike almost every other black metal album (this band's past discography included) to emerge from the USBM movement in several manners; not only does it push the envelope on the old-school vibe, but it also seamlessly integrates various forms of experimentation and progressions that transcend black metal. "Keep Them Open" starts off with hammering, menacing passages that aren't so unlike Nachtmystium's brethren in Krieg or Leviathan, but that all changes with the entrance of an instrument not seen often in black metal: the ebow. Wailing, screaming, horrifyingly distorted leads warp in and out of the mix, and there are plenty of solos through the album's course that hold a high degree of melody. I would dare say that the addition of the ebow on this album gives everything a very druggy, psychedelic atmosphere, and the somewhat obscured production only aids in this. Azentrius has stated that he was influenced by some prog rock/psychedelia during the writing of this album, and it clearly shows; but I think it transcends that. The songs here possess a startling earnesty and sincerity that can't be feigned, as if they were written in the very depths of a divine "trip" on LSD or salvia. The passion conveyed in these songs rivals that of what can be found in Xasthur or Leviathan; Azentrius' passionate screams twist and turn in fits of rage and mania, loosely guided by the swirling, hazy guitars and pounding drums.

Though the sound here is mostly black metal-based, such as rippers like "Antichrist Messiah," you'll find some elements that are rather surprising: as a unit, the band are impeccably tight; "Eternal Ground" ends with wailing Maiden-esque harmonies and a 2-step beat; both the opening and closing tracks ("Instinct" and "Decay," respectively) are purely ambient/drone works that revolve around waves of cascading guitar effects and a ritual-like atmosphere; "Here's to Hoping" will catch ears with its folk metal perversions; and various other songs make use of garbled digital noise that adds a bleak backdrop to everything.

Since Azentrius also brought in session members for the recording of the album, everything seems more organic as well. Imperial's throbbing bass powers the mid-paced and somewhat melancholy "Chosen by No One," and Wargoat Obscurum's drumwork stays perfectly within the confines of the music, but the blastbeats only help to add undeniable fury and intensity to the songs. Each member carefully balances his role with another to give an open show on all fronts.

Aside from a degree of progression and daring experimentation that result in a wonderful atmosphere, this album has a few other things that set it apart and make it a gem; the lyrics stray from the usual occult, suicidal, and Satanic ramblings in favor of a more introspective flair that examines the human mind and the self's need to find higher meaning in life; when combined with the music, it almost seems philosophical, and incredibly surprising for a black metal band. The production, while not unbearably raw, does let you know that you ARE listening to a black metal album; the drums have a deep, somewhat muffled sound; the guitars are a grey haze that weave desolate melodies around the listener, and the slightly muddled vocals only accent the ferocity in the performance.

Quite simply, Instinct:Decay is one the best albums to emerge in black metal in the 2000's. It ranks right up there with the modern classics, and rightfully so: with this much ground broken, it deserves to be such. It finely sits alongside albums like Nocturnal Poisoning, The Black House, and The Tenth Sub-Level of Suicide as the harbingers of USBM. You owe it to yourself to give this a listen, with or without heavy drug use. :)

Favorite tracks: "A Seed for Suffering," "Circumvention," "Eternal Ground," "Here's to Hoping."

Supremely Enjoyable Black Metal - 99%

cookiecutter, November 27th, 2006

With brutal death metal as my favorite genre, the words “melodic” and “keyboards” usually make me shudder, and rightfully so. However, on their album Instinct:Decay Nachtmystium reserve the keyboards and melodic guitars for making supremely enjoyable black metal, instead of bland, bombastic extreme metal.

The guitars on this album play catchy, yet fierce riffs that will stay with you very easily. Every song seems to have one or two great riffs that make each song unique and excellent. The songwriting here is really top notch. The production is middle of the road. Not so muddled that you can’t hear the riffs, but enough crunch left over to make it sound heavy. Besides the well-crafted riffs, there are a few clean sections thrown. Again normally this would make me recoil in horror, but they are kept at a minimum and done tastefully.

The vocals are reminiscent of others in the genre and remind me of a lower pitched Wrest (Leviathan). They are more than passable and suit the music well. The drumming is in the same situation as the vocals. It is good and keeps the music rolling along, and is there when needed, but the drummer never steps beyond his bounds. The keyboards play a mainly background role, and are effective in enhancing the guitar without overpowering it.

Besides the excellent riffs and good drums and vocals, the best thing about this album is the guitar solos. Yes, that’s right, guitar solos in black metal. They are not your typical metal leads either. The solos are drenched in wah effects and capture and evoke emotion very powerfully. They add that extra element that makes Insinct:Decay so great. If you like anything similar to this at all, or even if you usually don’t, give this gem from 2006 a try, you will not be disappointed.

one of the few original and innovative BM bands - 100%

robert_sun, November 8th, 2006

There is an indisputable crescendo in this band’s career. From the earlier, average raw Black Steel Nachtmystium emerged into something more original and individual than the other bands from the scene.

Despite the fact that this new opus has many old school BM influences, is more than a true-necro-old school BM album and I have no doubts that this release will become a classic. Azentrius’ songwriting improved a lot in the past years, and he managed to create a sound of his own, remaining true to the roots, but still bringing new elements to his music.

After the murmuring and noisy intro (Instinct) springs in the first real track, the warlike Seed For Suffering, which shoves that Black Metal still can be played creative, without losing the traditional elements of this style. I haven’t heard such a rampageous, primeval and powerful opening since the first song from Primordial’s Storm Before The Calm album. This song also contains surprising acoustic offsets, which are increasing the epic approach of the song. The next song (Keep Them Open) is more hostile than the previous one, with unconventionally screaming guitarsolos, which has become trademarks of Azentrius’ playing. Choosen By Noone starts with a simple middle-tempo drum formula and a distorted bass then is based on the variation of sometimes slow and painfully, other times fast and angry parts. Doom riffs, Burzum-like harmonies and fast, melodic Black Metal chords are marching like miserable spirits in this song.

The next 3 tracks are the most devastating and rapid songs on the record, but melodic and slower parts are also present. The opening of Here’s To Hoping is obviously influenced by Ildjarn, starting with a very simple drum and a guitar theme consisted only of 2 notes, but later the dark and epic riffs comes in, then in the middle of the song Azentrius’ blood-soaked voice is sustained by an old school metal riff (Manowar?). The penultimate attack is Abstract Nihilism with fast as hell tempos, where the melodies are inspired by old school Norwegian BM bands.

Decay symbolically ends the cycle with buzzing guitarlines, many noises and tribal-like drumming, creating a surreal, astral mood. Unbounded and impetuous riffs, epic and melodic harmonies, strange thrashy solos, warlike drums and a shattered voice, lots of guitarlines, embedded in an innovative sound, and if you will have persistence, you’ll realize that these are all top songs.

Natural Progression - 87%

Dark_Mewtwo1, June 16th, 2006

After the release of Demise and Eulogy IV, Nachtmystium has seen a dearth of detractors come out of the woodwork, questioning the direction of the band's sound. This album, Instinct: Decay, takes what was done on Demise and further expands on it, in the process becoming one of the better releases this year, and making Nachtmystium a rising power in the USBM scene.

After a quick noisy intro, A Seed For Suffering comes out and at first starts at a mid-tempo pace that Nachtmystium is known for, but then suddenly surges forward and attacks with viciousness. Right away you can tell the production is a bit cleaner on this album than in previous efforts, the guitars are a little bit more distinguishable, with the riffs being audible and the distortions sounding clean. The drums are powerful, yet are a little drowned in the mix, giving the sound of the drums a more monotone feel. But the biggest addition to this band's sound has to be the lead guitar played by Azentrius. At first, I hated them, I hated them to death and I crucified the band for doing this. I thought that the lead riffs sounded like bad synthesizer sounds. But as I gave this more and more listens, I realized just how great they sounded. The lead guitar is given some delay and reverb, just like the rest of the guitars in the album, and it has a haunting feel to them. It really fits with the music, and my hat goes off for Azentrius for doing a great job writing these into the music.

The album's tempo shifts from song to song. Some songs are reminiscent of older, more mid-tempo material, like Chosen By No One, which has a great chuggy-type riff section and then breaks down into a slower tempo and continues back and forth, while other songs are more experimental, like A Seed For Suffering and it's lead parts toward the end of the song, or the strange synth/noise sounds on Keep Them Open. It's a nice variation and it keeps the album interesting through and through.

Azentrius' vocal work is top notch on this album, possibly his best vocal work for Nachtmystium to date, very passionate yet fierce, and compliments the style of black metal the band plays. The only downfall I truly see in this album is the bass work, and how it's pretty buried by the sounds of the other instruments. The bass does manage to shine on the intro for Chosen By No One, with a great opening bassline accompanied by the drums.

If you are a fan of USBM, or black metal in general, and are looking for an album that bends the rules of the genre but firmly delivers the goods expected of a BM band, then check this album out. It may take a little to grow on you, but give it a few spins, and enjoy, because I truly feel this is the beginning of Nachtmystium's rise to the top of the USBM mountain.

A New Era? - 89%

drewnm156, June 11th, 2006

In the world of metal doing something against the norm is usually frowned upon. Isn’t it ironic that in a genre of music that claims to be against conformity, the fans of this music get so bent out of shape when a band incorporates new or different elements? Change scares people set in their ways. Change prevents stagnation. Change keeps a music scene alive. Nachymystim is doing all three.

The new Nachtmystium album will question your perceived notions of black metal and how it should be played. The songs on Instinct: Decay are shorter, faster and more aggressive than previous full length Demise. Production is also bassier than before, which gives it a heavier sound rather than just harsh. At times however the sound does come across as muddy at times. Whether intentional or not it does not detract from the enjoyment of the CD. What separates these tracks from the copy cat bands and initially might put off most listeners are the guitar melodies and solos played over each song. Most of these melodies are created with an e-bow which may seem out of place in black metal, but fits perfectly in my opinion.

I’ve heard people use the term psychedelic sounds to describe the new Nachtmystium sound. I’m not sure if I agree with that statement entirely, as I detect an early 70’s progressive vibe created within. These sounds create a totally original sounding atmosphere 180 degrees from what was created on Demise.

All songs are good with stand out track Eternal Ground as my favorite. This has a definite Emperor vibe in the main melody of the song, before moving to a catchy head banging chorus riff. It even has an Ihsahn falsetto type scream towards the end of the solo. Great stuff! My only complaint would be that although all the songs are enjoyable, the album is missing that handful of classic songs that would make this a masterpiece.

I can see the people on message boards slamming this album as a sell out. Miss out if you dare, but years from now we may just look at this album not only as an enjoyable piece of dark work, but the beginning of a new era in Black Metal. I don’t want metal to become Jazz, where there are great players, but no great movements. Albums like this will keep the scene alive.

Epic Black Metal - 85%

dreamethereal, June 2nd, 2006

Nachtmystium's newest effort, Instinct: Decay, shows a band who has progressed in their raw black metal assault.

I was first introduced to Nachtmystium after seeing them live with drone Gods Sunn O))) last December. They torched the PA accidentally, leaving them with no vocals, only music. It was an amazing experience, and their music conjured up images of black metal godfathers such as Emperor and old Enslaved.

So, fast forward a month or so, I had picked up their now previous effort, Demise. Needless to say I wasn't so impressed with Nachtmystium on CD. I sold the album back a few months later and didn't really think much of it.

I heard they were coming out with this album, and was mildly interested, but after my experience with Demise, I decided to hold off, and wait to see what people had to say.

The only other review on metal-archives for this so far gave the album a 30%, which is absolute crap. Nachtmystium have progressed by leaps and bounds from Demise to Instinct: Decay. The songs have EXCELLENT atmosphere, and the music does conjure up those images of Emperor and old Enslaved for me once again. This album includes LEAD guitar (in Black metal?! the fuck!?) but they use it wisely, and it adds great variety to the normal raw black metal sound. The drumming is proficient, and adds to the sound, rather than distract you with hyperblasts or anything like that.

Overall, Instinct: Decay accomplishes killer atmosphere while maintaining a punishing black metal aural assault. This album is not for fans of more mainstream symphonic crap like Dimmu Borgir and Cradle Of Filth, but for those who can appreciate raw black metal with atmosphere.

Hails.