Impergium / Towards Judgement

Here the most brutal elements of grindcore collide with the subtle beauty of the melodic ambitions of black metal to form a breathtaking piece of Metal music. I think the intention is to situate the listener in the bare ground of human pain and agony and achieves that by arranging the sounds that represent such emotions.


It is 1996 -97, amidst bands beginning to play friendlier sounding black metal, this band brings the rawest, most violent yet expressive interpretation of the genre, among a time of an overtly crowded scene making half-hearted black metal. This music show us a view of human suffering and desolation, under such a scope that somehow makes it all meaningful, because it finds a place for such experiences in human logic.


This is black metal, and damn fucking good at it. From grindcore it takes its most brutal methods and from black metal its melodic aspirations. In its core, the songs are a constant furious blasting cacophony of hyperspeed drums under heavily buzzing guitars. From within an immense wall of explosive noise, suddenly melody begins to bleed in and an amazing atmosphere is achieved. A trance-like melodic ambience of fascinating melancholic emotion. At moments, rhythm and cadence gradually build up speed and whirl the woeful melodies into a storm of sound. Curiously, despite the crushing detonation of armageddon riffs and bassy, gassy rumbling chaos, a sense of contemplation is construed. The vocals are high-pitched shrieks that deliver a feeling of distress, like that of being under unbearable physical and emotional strain. How a human would squeal before dying, freed from the burden of being alive in the middle of a war zone.


This music brings forth a contemplation of death. It is a panoramic vision of desolation, a wasteland brought upon by an ongoing war or perhaps, apocalypse. Bloodshed and destruction wiping out humanity, corpses mangled on shattered ground. It expresses the moment after human desperation dispensed by fear of death, when death has taken over and we stare at a blackened annihilated world.


In sum, the quality of this music is great in that it unites the emotional purpose of black metal that through melody it transmits a sense of dramatic grandeur, coupled with the fierce rhythms of extreme grindcore. A gaze into a void where death has conquered and only through a better will we might rise again. So yeah this kicks major ass and if you are into Sarcofago and Zyklon-B then Niden Div 187 is the right choice to follow. Amazing stuff right here.

This is honestly one of the biggest semi-forgotten classics that black metal has ever turned out. It's majestic. Somewhere between the oldschool aesthetic of Blasphemy and the ultra-binary, attacking nature of modern bands like Truppensturm lies Niden Div. 187, one of the few bands with which you can make an argument for 'war metal' being a legitimate stylistic description. Such a moniker fits this music well, because it's not JUST black metal- it goes a step further beyond that aesthetic, making it bleaker, more modern, and less indulgent in fantasy. It doesn't bring you to the world, it brings the world to you, but what makes it unique is that the world they're bringing you is just black metal's interpretation of the one we currently live in, simply made even more bleak, dark, and dangerous. If you appreciate truly excellent metal of any style, you owe it to yourself to pick up this compilation of one of metal's most needlessly overlooked bands (admittedly short) discography.

Niden Div. 187 just made music that's exquisite on every level, from the simplest of sonic qualities to the most high-minded of concepts. It's very, very brutal and militaristic black metal, extremely straightforward in just about every way. The band switches between hyperfast, Immortal-derived rolling blast beat configurations and lurching, funereal passages while guitars alternate between tremolo riffs of full atonality or fragile melody. Vocals are an EXTREMELY high screech that disappears almost entirely in the hideous, thin wall of guitars. The atmosphere is distinctly desolate and warlike; imagine a world where WWI never ended, just dragged on through the late 20th century with no end in sight. This is the music of those trenches. It's unique among black metal in that it has none of the supernatural or occult atmosphere of most BM, and really feels extremely 'realistic' if that makes sense at all. It's unusual among black metal for more reasons you'd think of at first glance.

The production is smoky, cloudy and raw, and if you don't like it (or at the very least can't stomach it) you're a pussy and probably shouldn't be listening to metal in the first place.

There's not a lot of wiggle room in liking this music. You'll respect the very minimal, warlike style of it or you won't. It is not lush and rich music; it's extremely focused on its individual mood and texture. It verges on black/grind at times due to its relative simplicity and ultra-focused presentation, and those into more traditional varieties of black metal may not enjoy this sort of thing. If you like the sleek, black, modern atmosphere, though, I don't think you'll find it anywhere better than this. Think of it as the pre-Aborym, only infinitely better. I personally love this stuff and I'd say that it verges on mandatory for anyone who considers themselves particularly involved in black metal.