Власть

N.K.V.D. are an interesting band with an interesting concept from France who play industrial black metal with strong influences from military marches and maybe a tiny bit of martial industrial influence as well. What the band set out to do is create a sonic atmosphere of totalitarianism that is cold, unfeeling, concrete-hard, oppressive, and ultimately terrifying. This is meant to sound hulking, big, and unnatural. Bottom line, what N.K.V.D. set out to do is make music that captures the essence and sound of oppression with all of the evil of such a state laid bare in the music. This should come as no surprise considering the name of the band is actually derived from the real-life precursor to the KGB who acted as the secret police and main spy agency of the Soviet Union, notorious for torturing, censoring, and killing those the state deemed a threat under Stalin. There's also the cover art which mashes Communist and Nazi imagery together, showing that brutal dictatorship is what this band is fixated on. Much like serial killers or demons, dictators have a way of inspiring a morbid intrigue that a metal band could easily capitalize on, and N.K.V.D. does so in a fairly novel way.

How N.K.V.D. does black metal is a lot like how a totalitarian dictator who is into the genre would probably do so, by mixing it in with his fetish for militarism and industrial might. The music may not vary by much, but what it does give you overpowers you in such a way that you can almost feel the black clouds of tyranny washing over the sky. The riffs on this thing are big, bombastic, loud, and serve to steamroll the listener with all of their loud, blaring might. It all sounds very martial, very imposing, and blasts as though it's coming out of a massive loudspeaker in a town square under military occupation. The machine gun-like drum machines rarely relent, and the guitars are an even mixture of monolithic and march-like meant to be as ominous and imposing as possible with the raspy snarls of the vocalist ringing out as if coming from a distorted bullhorn. This is the sort of stuff that makes for a very immersive atmosphere.

Granted, there is a problem with many of the songs following a similar formula of using a sample of a dictator's speech, terrorism, or some military chaos and then steamrolling one or two big riffs out until the end. Some variation could have done much more for Власть, making the songs much more distinct and giving us some more rousing, bombastic riffs and changes in tempo to make something that would take this interesting musical concept further. While the music is often similar from song to song, what we do get embodies its own purpose very well. However, I really wish there were more to this since it's a very interesting idea to combine military and totalitarian imagery so closely together with black metal. What riffs and atmosphere we do get are captivatingly crushing and feel larger than life with their slow pace and martial flair and it makes me a bit let down that there isn't more going on and that the music isn't more dynamic.

With all of this considered, Власть is solid, monolithic, totalitarian black metal that captures the essence of totalitarianism in their music. It's an original concept and holds together quite well with its iron fist method of rolling out punishing, immersive, and oppressive soundscapes with riffs that steamroll along sounding like the anthems to some insidious globe-spanning military regime. However, for how original it is, the songwriting is a bit too monolithic for Власть's own good and there isn't much on terms of motion or variation throughout and that could have made this into something truly special. However, this is the sort of album that finds its strength in chilling atmosphere and ominous militarism with the music providing a lot of raw strength. If you want to find a metal album that encapsulates the terrifying feeling of living in a soul-crushing, mighty police state, N.K.V.D's Власть is something to look for.