Carpe Noctem

I will not beat around the bush with this one, this is black metal. Nothing more, nothing less. Grinding guitars, blast beats, piercing vocals, and all wrapped together to provide some warped ambient feeling. Everything is well delivered, but the band kind of limits themselves by just playing black metal, as they have made an EP that is an enjoyable listen, but this isn’t going to land them any major record deal or growth.

That being said, there are three minor things that Carpe Noctem brings that slightly sets them apart. The first is the clean production. The guitars are crisp and clean for black metal, allowing you to actually hear the riffs without getting a headache, which really allows for atmosphere to flow naturally in the tracks. Track 2, for example (I’m not going to use the names because I can’t spell them too well and the accents are a pain to type), produces a really entrancing aura that can’t help make you feel like you are stumbling through the snow trying to escape from giants (I suppose that is what ‘jotun’ means in this context).

The second point is that last part right there (getting ahead of myself). The atmosphere that is set by the band really gives that evil aura convincingly without simply becoming a vehicle for pathetically unoriginal anti-Christian rants. Track 4 places you in a horror movie kind of setting with unsettling reverb heavy watery bass/guitar punctuated by shrill blasts of electric. Track 3 also sets an interesting tone with the speech, none of which I actually understand, but it is intriguing simply for the Icelandic language.

That intro is also key to the third minor difference in this band; they’re from Iceland. I’m not particularly well informed, but I have never heard of another metal band from Iceland, despite it being a logical place for the spawn of cold and icy black metal as well as the fields bearing folk metal. So Carpe Noctem has also helped to turn me onto another whole scene of music that hasn’t really hit big anywhere else.

The band really delivers black metal ideals well lyrically and musically though. The frigid tempo and dynamic changes of track 3 grabs hold of the ears and refuses to let go until its icy will be done, and even the church burning of track 4 is a quality interpretation of traditional black metal concepts. The intro onto track 1 also serves to give the EP a slow start, but it is key in preparing the mind for the isolation of the rest of the offerings heard here.

The guitars are solid on the album, maintaining a pretty good pace as they burn through a very small amount of tremolo riffs, perhaps 2 to 5 per song, while throwing in the average slow, gritty heavy sections here and there. Things also get a little doom n’ gloom with drawn out parts on tracks 3 and 4, which utilize spacing and time effectively, but not with anything that we haven’t seen before. Unfortunately, none of the riffs are memorable enough to warrant more than a handful of return visits because they get stuck in your head.

The lower end of the band also delivers pretty well. The drums are engaging and display an understanig of the sound of the instrument so as to use it to add atmosphere to the music rather than simple blast beats. That being said, there is some primal blasting, but the production allows you to hear it cleanly for once. The bass really adds some depth to band when they slow down for the spacey phrases on Tracks 3 and 4. May haps this occurrence is due to the fact that the drums and bass aren’t programmed (refreshing, isn’t it?).

I don’t think I can really tell you at this point whether or not you should track this EP down and listen to it. You know if you enjoy old school black metal, and being the polarizing enigma that it is, there is really nothing left for me to say. This mini album is a quality listen, but it does not revolutionize the genre other than to provide a consistent performance on all four tracks. Track 2 is definitely the best of the bunch though.