Wrath obviously decided that despite Dodsferd churning out new releases on a reasonably regular and well received basis, it really was not enough nihilistic black metal for his voracious appetite. So, enter Nadiwrath, Wrath’s side project. Intended to be old school, first wave black metal, it’s actually a bit deeper than that, mixing a number of styles, and most importantly, turns out to be rather good.
Opening with a short, sharp ‘Fuck You’, opening salvo ‘Darkness Has Lost Its Meaning’ is a ‘Black & Roll’ blast in the vein of Carpathian Forest, with a simple punky guitar riff. Wrath’s vocal here is of the throaty rasp variety and delivered with a sneering menace and evil, however midway through the track the tempo briefly changes and Wrath unveils his more familiar style of anguished howling and bellowing. ‘Two Faced Shit Fuckers’ continues in the same simplistic but effective vein, with a guitar riff so simple it puts me in mind of a small child making derisory comments and running away. ‘Horns’ is the first of the tracks reworked from the original 2007 demo, and it’s from here that we can really see quality inherent in this band. The pace is faster, the vocals more angry and insulting and there is just so much more of a feel of aggression and spite. Mid track, Wrath once again breaks down into anguished howls, which initially sounds out of place and clunky, sounding almost as if someone has recorded over it with a Bethlehem track, but as the atmosphere changes to dark, sinister and foreboding, it fits very well.
Reducing the simplicity works a treat, and the riffing on ‘There Is No Light’, whilst not exactly technical, takes a giant leap forward from a 2 chord trade off. The drumming is far more technical too, with Maelstrom finally able to stretch his creative legs a bit. Disappointingly though, they maintain the same formula here, and after a good 3 minutes or so of solid filthy black metal, Wrath feels the need to slow things down and wheel out the Bethlehem howls again. Bloody irritating. Thankfully, it passes reasonably quick this time. Ramping up the rasping vocal nastiness on ‘Another Pimping Whore’, the style and intensity veers towards Impaled Nazarene and tends to flip-flop between that and Carpathian Forest for the duration of the album. Both ‘Winter Nights’ and ‘Eyes Full Of Vengeance’ have been recycled from the 2007 demo and both of are a very high quality. The downbeat ending to EFOV is a particular highlight, with a crushing bleakness to it. The true highpoint of this album though is the triumphant final track, ‘Memories Are Dead’, a ten minute despairing, atmospheric masterpiece.
The Greeks have managed here to produce a solid, if not outstanding album of trve Norwegian black metal. The quality is very high throughout, the production is pretty much right on the nose, with a underlying fuzziness to everything, but not so much so where it sounds like a tape recorder in a dustbin. It may not be a perfect album by any stretch, but for a decent slab of old school dirty, filthy black metal, it comes highly recommended.
http://www.myspace.com/nadiwrath
