Night's Embrace

Nachzehrer has improved with every release and this is no exception. However, the degree of improvement here is astronomical. Behold, the best black metal demo of 2023 thus far.

The vintage-keyboard bells that set the tone for the demo do so perfectly - they're a little hard on the ears and a little hypnotic, the ideal combination of sounds for an ominous intro track. But even this flawless intro is nothing in the face of the actual songs. Sounding similar to the classic bands is not always a good thing and too much of it can render an artist's work too unoriginal, but with "Necrophilic Lust" Nachzehrer's own redolently dark sound pushes forward and blends with riffs, drums, and vocals that could have been from Det som en gang var.

That single-note riffing style carries forward throughout the EP and is a terrific development of the already-strong guitar work on previous Nachzehrer releases. These are the kind of riffs that inspire visions of dark castles, clouds over forests at night - the kind that keep close to the tonic but still move just as much as a less tonally-locked melody might. Yet it is the drums that excite me more. I can't be sure, but the drums on earlier releases have always sounded programmed to me. These drums simply must be live and they pulse with the fury of a tight but imperfect human drummer, the mics redlining with each simplistic snare or tom fill. Any raw black metal drummer who comes across this demo would do well to listen and learn.

I know that it makes for a boring review, but I have literally nothing negative to say about Night's Embrace. It's a perfect demo. Next time someone asks me what black metal is, I will show them a song from this demo (after they've heard "Transilvanian Hunger" of course). For those already in the know, I cannot recommend this highly enough.