If memory serves, the last Indonesian band I reviewed was Avgrav. We are back in that Asian country full of contrasts and hidden blasphemies with Nocturum’s new EP, ‘Upon Thy Grave’, which has no official physical release yet and is only available digitally on Bandcamp. Interestingly, the EP’s cover art resembles the face of a tape edition; perhaps this is a premonition of a future physical release?
The EP opens with ‘Summoning Those Long Forsaken’, which blends into a cacophony of raw, poorly recorded black noise amidst melancholic chords lost somewhere in the ether. This noise lives up to the term ‘lo-fi’ production; I would say this type of Black Metal is for trained ears. From the first second, one feels the dark, melancholic weight the track exudes, an emotional heaviness that strangles its five-and-a-half-minute duration.
The following track, ‘No Light Remains, They Shall Only Wail’, follows the same path as the previous song, beginning slowly and darkly before unleashing a chaotic onslaught. For ears unaccustomed to black noise, the rhythmic shifts to mid-tempo riffs, laden with malicious arpeggios and reverberating wails, will not be easily perceptible. These chaotic elements are pervasive. However, unlike other tracks, in ‘…Upon Thy Grave’ and ‘The Void Draweth Near’, the rhythm guitars have a dark, melancholic tremolo-picking cadence. This reminded me of Moonblood’s early demo era, with its irregular time signatures and the deathly stench typical of the raw black metal practiced by Nocturum.
To close this work, ‘The Realm Unfoldeth into Nothingness’ rises from the tomb. Although it is my favourite, it follows the EP’s established formula: a slow start followed by unleashed chaos. Strangely, it is the shortest track at under two minutes, leaving me to wonder what happened to the last bit of fuel for this bonfire.
