The Return of the Southern Tyrants

While, The Return of the Southern Tyrants came out about half a decade too late to be called influential or pioneering in 2001. Though two of these tracks were also recorded for different versions on a '94 demo. Nocturnal Worshipper were a Brazilian nineties black metal band that would put out two releases. This includes a mid-90's EP that was inspired by Celtic Frost, Bathory, Venom and other distasteful crew. Although, keep in mind this was with an entirely different line-up. The bassist is the only remaining original member, while the song writer-vocalist/guitarist and drummer would depart company and enter different bands.

I can hear plenty of influences from Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and Darkthrone's Under a Funeral Moon. Not because I can't come up with better comparisons, but N.W.'s influences are a little more forefronting than other bands in this regard. This comes with some similar riffs coming nearly direct from the Mayhem side and Darkthrone side, and the vocals and certain drum fills coming from an inspired Darkthrone side as well. For example, the beginning of the track 'Prince of Death' uses identical strums from the beginning of Mayhem's Freezing Moon; as well as the opener for 'A Tomb in the Satanist Hill' uses identical structuring as the opener for Mayhem's Funeral Fog. Otherwise, when Nocturnal Worshipper plays them through it uses different riffs and moments. And those particular snare rolls that Fenriz did on early releases are used in abundance during faster sections. Yet on his own he uses some galloping double bass on some of the slower sections and catches himself with lighter blasts and louder, more prominent snare rolls. 'Ancient Flames of Darkness' uses a more Burzum inspired opener with layered guitars and is more melodic sounding. The first and last track are taken directly—cut and pasted is more like it—from the composer Jerry Goldsmith's The Omen score as well. Yep, the creepy ones with a dramatic orchestra and a dark sounding Latin choir.

A production job—which shouldn't matter for a group aiming towards the cold terrain of early 90's Norwegian black metal. A place where more than two microphones is one too many. Although this release was recorded in a studio. They went for a louder but rawer sound: the tone of the guitars is maxed at treble, but not ear piercing treble; the drums are spaced and microphoned; while the vocals are streamed overtop with massive amounts of reverb and some delay. This is definitely a more audible recording within the genre.

With the exception of the intro and outro, most of the tracks are decently long. These play layered black metal all the way through, no keyboards or breaks with acoustic, folky rhythms. There's profuse amounts of simplistic tremolo styled riffs. However, I think the guitars fair better when mid-paced. Because it seems like when playing faster they take characteristic Nordic techniques and 'jimmy' them. Like how you would pick a lock and feel around for what works. Though, there are some neat little traditional metal scaled solos during the music, which might be more of a surprise. Even using an abrupt finger tapped part on 'Ancient Flames of Darkness' when the rest of the music stops. Definitely a stand out feature is the vocalist appears to be female, which if you didn't look at live pictures of the band, you might not be able to tell. Yet she uses harsh, almost squawky rasps directly from a coarse and strained throat and with plenty of cave-like effects on them as well. Plus a few shrieks and upstarting grunts.

The pace of The Return isn't all fast, there are a fair amount of mid-paced sections throughout it. Although, this output walks a thin line with characteristic techniques that have been played before. I think they have a few moments within this. But it is something to consider if you are going to try and track this down. If you're looking for something that is entirely different, then you might want to reconsider. But if you're just looking for an album that plays in the same homage but doesn't exactly muck it up. Then Nocturnal Worshipper's release of The Return of the Southern Tyrants is brought to the table for the hungry, and not as much as the full who might give a passing thanks-but-no-thanks greeting.