Nachtblut

I was curious about where this band started since I like their later material a lot, and while some of the music is pretty good, ultimately the quality was so bad I was disappointed.

It's a one man band like a lot of this kind of stuff is. His vocals are show a decent range, but it's not always good. The majority of the time he's doing a normal black metal high scream, though sometimes he'll get a bit more scratchy for wordy verses. He also attempts really high highs, trying to sound like second wave Norwegian, but it sounds cringe when he does that (you can tell he's sticking his tongue out).

Drumming is varied, sometimes just keeping time on basic 4/4 and sometimes showing aggression with the bass pedal and ride cymbals. They suffer a lot from the terrible production though - at times when I should be impressed at his drumming skill instead I'm rolling my eyes because they sound like they're wrapped in plastic.

The riffs are best at the start of the album - everything is better at the start of the album. You have the cheerful, partying style of RAC guitar playing that gives NSBM it's own musical identity, and I love it. The first three songs are the best examples of this, and they're the best songs on the album. Catchy choruses pair with headbanging riffs and you can't resist. He uses a lot of dissonance to make it interesting too.

The problem as I said is the production. These song sound like they're underwater. It's a terribly noisy compression job. Sometimes it'll play louder on one side than the other - not on purpose for any artistic reason - just because it's a shitty recording like some of the Hellhammer demos (now Demon Entrails).

Starting on track 6 the volume drops considerably, enough that you have to adjust the volume. Why wasn't it all mastered at uniform decibel level? Starting on track 8 the production drops even further. It feels like the last few songs were tacked on from somewhere else. So you're already distracted by how bad the production is and then it gets even worse... you can imagine how the listener feels.

There are interesting ideas buried in here and thankfully the band expanded on them in later releases. 'Sadistic Pleasure' has a slow, threatening, almost Sabbath-ish intro and 'Hessenleid' is his attempt at a more introspective ballad to give a break from the RAC anthems. Neither of these can reach their potential because the sound quality is worse than some demo tapes, but at least you know the ideas are there.

Overall, if you already like this band, it's worth a listen just to see the origins, but only one listen. Otherwise stick to their later catalog.