Destroy Yourself

This demo was the only recording of Nibdem's that had a proper release; the band had recorded an EP of two songs in 2006 which was never released. The Dutch band plays a noisy and very bleak buzzing style of depressive black metal. "Destroy Yourself" is Nibdem's legacy and as legacies go, it's extremely harsh and grim with frothing acid-spraying BM guitars, the occasional clean-toned lead guitar solo and medium-paced percussion that provides good solid support to the flowing tremolo guitars.

The whole recording is very good with a lot of energy, flowing melody and a great sound so it's a shame that the band didn't last long. "Emptiness" opens the demo in great style: the drumming is strong with a sometimes rolling thundering rhythm and the guitars have a steely droning texture. The vocals are extremely harsh with an acid-bleached texture: they seem almost washed out. The song is strongly melodic in spite of the seething noise textures and as it progresses it reaches epic proportions with monumental riffs and trilling guitar lines.

The title track is very downbeat and slows down to almost doomy-slow level with the rhythm becoming heavy and slumping along. As with the first track, the music assumes a monolithic status but can still rocket at a good speed while wraith-like demon vocals screech around the rapid-fire beats. "Dying Slow" picks up speed but now the vocals recede even more into a terrifyingly inhuman and monstrous groaning state. The music hits blast-beat speed in parts. Instrumental passages can be long, meandering and near-experimental.

Plenty of variety is to be had in just three songs. Each track has its own distinct identity and moods. The music's style is solid and thick, and proves itself capable of chucking massive guitar riffs and solos and thunderous drumwork out of loudspeakers as if it's normal for every band in the world to produce monumental music. All the more reason to wonder why Nibdem left such a small output of excellent work. There's not much here that can be faulted and my only gripe here is that the songs are not longer to carry a style of music that is almost colossal in its sound.