Twisted Circle

A fairly young black metal band from the UK, Nebular Frost kicks things off with a four track ep, "Twisted Circle". What we have here are three tracks trained in the Darkthrone school of lo-fi necrolatry, plus the mandatory synth introduction titled "Approaching The Twisted Circle". Though executed with enough style to warrant its inclusion in a full release, the three minutes-plus of ambience here is in danger of making the full fifteen minutes of "Twisted Circle" appear somewhat top heavy.

Ambience is not what this recording is about though. Undeniably geared towards the live performance, the clearly-stated mission of Nebular Frost is to recreate guttural, churning metal which they can fire in barrages across a small assembly of unsuspecting metalheads. They achieve this with beguilingly complex and sophisticated compositions masquerading as straight up, church-burning war metal. Riffs are arranged intuitively as tumultuous, tumbling patterns subside with the approach of rolling bass swells or part for the appearance of calm, mid-paced sections. All are performed with cohesion and a sense of direction that means, when "At The Stake" breaks down for a truly nasty, bastard-baby of a guitar solo, it all appears purposeful and the track loses none of its forward momentum. All vocals are performed whole-heartedly with a torn-to-shreds delivery that sits well in the mix without distracting from the music itself. Drums sound most devastating when augmented by the distortion-rich bass lines of "At The Stake", leaving the impression of small explosions in a concrete basement. The bass itself is satisfyingly audible throughout and gallops, jumps and rumbles its way through the tracks.

Production is clearly low down on Nebular Frost's list of priorities, but is authentic in the manner of Darkthrone's "Thulcandra" demo tape, and not contrived like many self-consciously "necro" black metal recordings. This adds an organic element of the recording, again emphasising the "as live" nature of the tracks. This is music best suited to localised underground venues and metalhead pubs that are able to provide the intimacy required to fully appreciate the intricacies of these arrangements. For now, Nebular Frost are bucking the trend of recent UK black metal acts who tend to opt for the Wall Of Sound approach to riff-making atop a constant thundering of blast beats. This three-piece band may have found strength in fewer numbers for the simple reason that each element of this recording can be distinguished from the rest. The correct selection of seven or eight more tracks could well turn "Twisted Circle" into a very accomplished debut album for Nebular Frost.