I often believe that the mind wishes to experience that which does not belong to the shackles of this flesh prison, to taste that which transcends the invisible. Through potent art, the soul may be able to traverse such planes, be it even a few seconds, for within those seconds a world is discovered, and through discovery, catharsis is reaped from its soil.
“Sundrung” by Nexion stokes the pyres of Black Metal imbuing unto its fire a ceremonial yet transcendental aura to its motion, crafting an album that speaks a similar tongue of such bands like Heathen Deity, Sinmara and Theotoxin. Whereby the foundation of Black Metal becomes the earth wherein an altar is erected, one carved from sound, and upon this structure the mind is ushered onto a journey where art unfolds itself in the most naked and honest manner.
The manner in which the instruments exhale can be likened to that of the unbridled ocean, wherein its waters can be soothing upon the skin however in the same breath it can baptise the soul in its strength, so too does the strings and percussion exude in its candor. The track “Uþarpaspa” exhibits this duality in the language of the strings coupled with the bombardment of the percussions, for this is a testament where the album takes the rhythmic structure of Black Metal and amplifies its meditative side, the use of dissonance is highlighted here where it imbues onto the atmosphere a frenetic energy almost as though you can feel it twist and saunter towards the senses.
Following along this path of synergy, the unification of the vocals and the strings exhibit a juxtaposition in its coiling manner for at times the melodies invoke a lashing quality to its playing as though the soul becomes welted by its invocation. However it is the voice which cauterizes such wounds with its apocryphal speech. ‘Gandr’ and ‘Rending the Black Earth’ are tracks which showcase this magick between the instruments and the vox, where the musical boundaries become blurred, for in its place, a spell is woven from the transmission of these energies.
Nexion takes the confinements of art and dissolves the tendrils in its bile,opening a gateway for the soul to become fully immersed in the spell woven by its flickering tongue, and like the wound whose ichor stains the sand, so too does the sounds of Sundrung seep into the consciousness altering its state. For what remains when the smoke has settled from this precession is the stench of sulfur signalling that the sorcery of art and mind has been fused into one.
