Look at the name. Look at the title. Look at the label. Come on, you all know exactly how this is going to sound before hearing a single second of it. And you’d be right. We’re in spike-clad, candlelit, delay-heavy primitive blasphemic territory here with scant regard for compromise or subtlety. Downtuned guitars churn like the rumbling of subterranean behemoths as sole protagonist Ghastly Apparition chants his invocations of horror.
Slotting right in alongside modern luminaries of this approach such as the highly-regarded Tietanblood or the UK’s very own Grave Miasma, Nocturnal Blood occupy the increasingly popular territory of ‘occult death metal’. Mixing the primeval, lurching pummel of early Immolation and Incantation with unsettling Hammer Horror atmospherics provides a heady mix and Mr Apparition demonstrates a real aptitude for conjuring up suitably dungeonic atmospheres amongst the din. This foul stew is seasoned further with liberal doses of fellow US legends VON and even at points the fetid crawl of ‘Joined in Darkness’-era Demoncy.
With material such as this, the quality of the sound is as important as the quality of the riffing and ‘Desecrated Graves’ is perfect in that respect with the vocals in particular being appropriately cavernous and resonating with satisfying levels of delay. OK, so there is little to distinguish between individual songs here with the seven short tracks more or less running into each other over the thirty-minute running time of the album but that is not the point at all. This isn’t about hooks, choruses or melody, it’s about concocting a relentless churn of grisly atmosphere that inexorably draws you down into the depths. In that, ‘Nocturnal Blood’ have conjured up a cleverly-constructed rumble of nocturnal blasphemy guaranteed to induce wry smiles of appreciation from those in the know.
http://nocturnalblood.hellsheadbangers.com
