Eulogy IV

This album was absolutely revelatory. After being smitten with last year's Instinct:Decay, I was really excited to finally hear this, Nachtmystium's previous endeavor from 2004, and OMG! What I wasn’t ready to hear was what would become one of my new favorite black metal records ever! Okay, it’s not actually a proper album, but an e.p. clocking in at about 38 minutes. Pretty much everything about this record is kick ass. This version is a vinyl re-release of the album originally issued on mCD by Battle Kommand Records. The Seattle metal-mega-store, Kreation Records, has decided to start releasing vinyl in 2006, first releasing the Wormwood double lp, then this album, Eulogy IV. I believe this version is limited to 1000 copies. This album is an ushering in of a new era for Nachtmystium. Not content anymore to exist in the narrow confines of raw black metal, Eulogy IV finds main man Azentrius and crew really diving into blackened psychedelia. The songs are cohesive and catchy. The melodic hooks are filled with emotional angst and drown the listener in melancholy. And finally, lets talk about the solos. The solos. Blues-infused, pentatonic brilliance! They're really more like classic rock solos than black metal solos, but somehow amazingly, it works!
The album closes with two covers, a Burzum cover from the Aske e.p., the song "Stemmen Fra Tarnet". This is one of my favorite early Burzum cuts and they do it a fine justice. Nachtmystium is joined by Lord Imperial from Chicago black metallers, Krieg and N.I.L.. Stemmen Fra Tarnet ist Krieg! The other cover is kinda from left field, but served with equal aplomb. It is an Earth song from the Pentastar album. This just serves as another example of Nachtmystium's awesome ability to defiantly assimilate influences not-traditionally associated with black metal.

I like to consider myself an open-minded person, and I enjoy discovering new bands that are unique and original, and it fills me with joy whenever I uncover a new artist brimming with genius and creativity. When I listened to this album, I felt none of this. Well, thats a lie, as I did feel some joy. Joy through my amusement after learning that this is a serious band, and people take this band seriously, and actually (yes, you heard right) enjoy this music. Nachtmystium, if you never heard their music, would think they are a fairly credible, artistic band. They have names that sound spooky, a pentagram/inverted crosses in their band logo, and corpse paint on the cover. Unfortunately under this not-so clever charade, is a bunch of music made by morons to appeal to morons, as this music is bland, unoriginal, uncreative, and at its core is rock music dressed up to look like black metal.

The first cut on this album, is the up-tempo rocker "My Vengeance". When I first heard this, it sounded somewhat promising. But then came the main riff. Slayer called, they want their style back. This pretty much follows a classic verse-chorus structure , going back and forth from a semi-tremolo picked riff with a small melody carved out in the higher notes, to a more 'intense' chorus part emphasizing repetition, perhaps to seem more 'evil'. The vocals are simply a croak with a bunch of reverb added for added scariness, which is laughable.

Next song is the title track. Cycling rock structures make up the main part of this riff, with the classic over-cliched minor-pentatonic soloing over top. Maybe one of their influences is Boston? The song doesn't really seem to go anywhere, never really deviated from the main chord progression, just changing the tempo of the drums, and the vocals aren't even loud enough to make any sort of impression. Unless this is some attempt at sounding epic, I have no idea what the band is trying to communicate with this song, as Eulogy is a poor description of this song, unless it's a eulogy of your friend who died in high school who committed suicide because he was unpopular.

Now, the next song confuses me. It sounds exactly like the previous song. The chord progression is slightly different, but it doesn't change. It just repeats over and over again, always going back to the root every other note it seems. The singer seems to be saying something, but it doesn't really add much to the music, his voice never differs, and doesn't even provide a good cadence like that of most good black metal vocalists. See above paragraph for more info on this song.

Oho, this next song has blast beats. At least at the beginning. But it still suffers from the cliches that the previous songs suffer from. Recycle the same 4 chords or so over and over again, never changing the pattern, do this for 5 minutes, change the intensity of the drums a few times, you've got a song. This song has a guitar solo. This brings great meaning to the song as it shows us that Azentrius can sit down in a studio and play notes to a chord progression.

The next song is more 'minimalist' you could say. 'Minimalist' meaning they decided that writing an actual song was too difficult, so they decided that playing one note then playing another note at the end of the phrase was much easier. Then for added effect they added some weak scream/shriek like voices over top, to give it atmosphere. So I guess you could term this "Atmospheric-Minimalistic Black Metal". Right...

If it couldn't get any worse, Nachtmystium decides to cover two highly excellent and innovative artists, Ildjarn and Von.

However, neither of these covers brings any meaning or a new perspective to the originals, making carbon copies of the original with none of the warmth that they had. Azentrius doesn't even have the skill to emulate Ildjarns vocals with any skill, so he just uses a voice synthesizer instead. As for the Von cover, any idiot can play this song, but Nachtmystium just thinks it would be better just to play the original song, just with more 'raw' production.

So to sum it all up, this is an uncreative, unoriginal, uninspired, release which shows that this band as little to no compositional skill, talent, and as it should follow, intellect.

Don't buy this album, and encourage others not to. Death to the mediocre underground.

The reason for the title of my review is that I see this as the first Nachtmystium album where Azentrius' influences aren't blatantly apparent. Truly developed into a style of it's own, Eulogy IV is the type of black metal that is "different" without losing any of it's intergrity. I've listened to my fair share of BM for years now and I really can't recall anything that sounded quite like this album. So, I call it the first Nachtmystium album, because it really is an original sound.

If you get this CD, you have to be ready to accept something different. Tracks like "Eulogy IV" and "Bleed for Thee" are not going to satisfy your need for "Grim" or "raw" black metal. The track Eulogy IV is very melodic and even catchy, but it is still dark and Nachtmystium hasn't lost that underlying depressing sound. This CD won't get your adrenaline pumping, it's more the kind of "sit in a dark room and relax" style.

I'm reviewing the CD format, so I can't comment on the cover songs. As far as the CD, 4 out of the 5 tracks are great. "You Get Nothing", credited to bass player Chris Black in the insert booklet, is an overly simplistic song, but I suppose you could consider it the outro. I would have rather had another song composed by Azentrius in it's place though.

Overall, if you're looking for something suprisingly new and refreshing in the USBM scene, you need to go get this disc. If you're close minded, and a guitar solo in a black metal song will make you shudder, then steer clear.

Azentrius of Nachtmystium refuses to become complacent or stagnant. With every release he seems to redefine what we know as Nachtmysitum. And this redefinition always comes in the form of forward progress. We can here him grow and evolve with every release.
With “Eulogy IV”, that forward progress is represented by a new-found melodic presence. A melodic presence that was also evident on “Demise,” but on “Eulogy IV” it takes the front seat in the form of epic and innovative guitar solos. At first it seems a bit odd to have melodic guitar solos in grim black metal, but once you settle into the music, you realize that he has just opened a door that you never realized was even there. The solos always have purpose and you are never left with the feeling that he is just “wanking off” as so many other bands do. They are important components of the songs, and ad a majestic mood to the recording.
The first track “My Vengeance,” has to be one of the most memorable songs in contemporary black metal. I think most black metal fans will be instantly captivated within the first 30 seconds of this track. Very uptempo, yet not blasting. Towards the end of the song you are hit with one of the most bizarre (in a good way) guitar solos you will ever hear in black metal. This track is a great opener for this monumental black metal release.
My only overall “complaint,” is that this release is not longer. This is one of those recordings that leaves you thirsty for more. Most people will wind up listening to this 5 times the first day they get it.
The bonus tracks on the vinyl are good, but thats how I see them, as “bonus” tracks. They are great renditions of songs by Ildjarn and Von, but the mood is different from the originals. I’m not complaining, but if I had the choice between those 3 covers or 3 more originals, I would have picked originals.
All in all, this is a phenomenal release that only further secures Nachtmystium’s legacy in the US black metal scene.