Nirrti

And thus, as 2023 writhes in the final, horrific throes of dying ecstasy, LISTCRUSH season is upon us once again – join with us as each BMD scribe reveals their own respective venerated apotheosis of the last twelve months. First up is our subterranean avant-gardeist of nightmare vision and vitriol, the Centipede Abyss commander… Pan Inentropy.

TOP NINE

9. Nirrti – Palindromos

Nirrti’s Palindromos marks the beginning of my top 9. Offering up illusory soundscapes that are horrendously disjointed yet in a flowing manner, with what can only be described as sonic recoil throughout. This was one of the first I encountered in the year and the fact that it has stayed in mind for over six months is testament to its well crafted anatomy.

8. Ôros Kaù – Thanatos

More vivid than the previous outing and can only be described as impactful and monolithic. Harkening to middle-eastern string work, as you’d expect, and doused in doom-meets-drone feels with some beastly vocals, simply put: Thanatos is Ôros Kaù’s best work to date.

7. Mórnu- The Unearthly Becomes Inherent

Its deceptive introduction has stuck with me, heavily reliant on atmosphere, but with a rough and ready production that assimilates with its dissonant nature instinctively. Passages come and go, the pace changes up, and those death-doom sections can only be described as otherworldly and commanding.

6. Domhain – Nimue

This one fills my wants for something haunting and reflectively beautiful. Lots of “post” influence on this, with what can only be described as celestial levels of somber epicness, that just instinctively feel as though they could be emanating from the hills and forests themselves.

5. Turpitude – Une interprétation de la dissolution glaciale en quatre mouvements

There are a lot of progressive elements on this, the way the composition snakes in and out of sections is what really caught my attention. The sound is by no means “clean”, ‘though; this is nasty, feral stuff that occupies the raw black metal space. Fierce, mid-paced throughout and with enough variance and eerie interludes to give it an almost… cinematic quality.

4. Blacnk – For This Is The Rot Of Existence

Blacnk manages to assimilate the old school sound of 90s BM with a hefty dose of hallucinogens to offer up for this is the rot of existence. I simply adore this drops’ almost playful but sinister nature. This is an album that really toys with your senses, being at once hypnotic and horrifying.

3. Astwihad – Gatha 1: Asto-Vidatu

This is like listening to yourself being dragged into a never-ending vortex. The way the sound swirls around you is a joy to behold. Powerful, aggressive and – if you look hard enough – surprisingly melodic; but ultimately the soundtrack to plunging down a never-ending chasm.

2. Sombre Ciel – Sombre Ciel

This sounds… like the album art. There is generous and well thought out use of composition variance here that gives the dissonance on this an ultimately more menacing form. Its wild production and drowned out vocals lend themselves well to the polarity you’ll experience on this album, going from the disjointedly malignant, to the dizzy ambient washes.

1. Orbyssmal – Abyssom

Anyone remotely aware of my listening habits was probably expecting something like this as my number 1. Orbyssmal has, simply put, unleashed a masterpiece. Have you ever encountered something so disgustingly horrific that you stare at, getting yourself lost in its draw? Edging closer, only to be fascinated more? That is this album. Dense, suffocating and otherworldly… comparisons to Portal are inevitable, but the energy on this is something its own and separate. The relentlessness of each track, the way every instrument merges with the other to form that punishing tone, and the wails that sound as though they are from a manic beast feasting ravenously on something it killed… all awesome.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE LISTCRUSH IN THE COMING DAYS. HAILS.

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By Pan Inentropy (Centipede Abyss)

There’s a certain sense of anxiety about the sound of Czech solo project NIRRTI, which shares a striking dissociation with its natural steady, but powerful, flow. Fans of dissonance in the genre will find something to latch onto here: interdimensional despair, dedicating a third of its length to some chaotic tonage that has a burrowing, almost natural type of drone effect, not too far off from sounding like a swarm-like entity. This will give way to some lighter and more psychedelic sections that teeter steadily, in a very fragmented but purposeful manner… then back to more swarmage.

The project’s previous album Psychonautix had a light “rock touch” to it, and the intro to the second track ‘The act of selfdescruction is not a sin but I still feel like a sinner’ kind of recalls that. It’s still very disjointed, rooted heavily in psychedelia and I personally love the way the drums carry a lot of the intro, giving it a decidedly otherworldly presence through its ritual like demeanor. For a comparison think of the cleaner sections from Kexelür; in terms of tone it isn’t too far off from something like Paracletus’ ‘Dearth’ (in the calmer section) but its character is more alien. ‘The Act of Self Destruction…’ could very well be a hybrid of Paracletus’ ‘Phosphene’ and Blut Aus Nord‘s Cosmosophy… the highs and lows we are presented with giving a real sense of ethereal dynamism, which on a disso-pysch album works extremely well.

When ‘Palindromos’ hits (my favorite track), that slow, seering riff is just pleasing to the ears. You don’t listen to this track, you melt into it; it engulfs you, wraps you in its strange embrace and then serenades you before flipping the script on its head and plunging you through a maelstromic (I know that’s not a real word) portal. The way it trails off is extremely fitting too, as it adds a dark, skulking presence to the track before re-affirming its fury to you once more.

‘Seven gates to personal hell of my own overdose’ is a little bit of a slow-burner; the way the guitars shriek and slide on this is something truly magnificent to behold. I consider it godly, I think I love this “droning swarm” thing the band has going on. My hat goes off to the drummer once again for really providing a sense of the journey travelled on this track; rather than just merely blastbeating all the way through, an effort is made to escalate and de-escalate the compositions and it’s the percussion that really tells you this.

There is a lot of Blut Aus Nord coming through on ‘Hope died first – she woke up – but it was not her anymore’, alongside some Skáphe and Kexelür, but despite this, the band have definitely built their own blend of disjointed and dissonant, hallucinatory beat that stares you in the face with an air of curiosity. The closing track is everything you’d expect of an outro, there’s a sense of finality about it, delivered through excellent use of atmosphere. Whilst not the strongest track, it does its job as heralding the close of the album.

There’s something here for both disso and psych fans of the genre, and something unique; at the end of it, rather than feel like I had heard the album, it was more like the album was examining me. That’s the degree of alien to it.

Palindromos released April 21st.

Purchase Palindromos digitally from Bandcamp HERE.

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