Sometimes a demo or early album shows fantastic promise, but is marred by either the band’s lack of technical finesse, or simply sub-par production values. Going back to re-record such material is seldom a successful venture, since the revisit often fails at recapturing the spirit of the inexperienced youngsters who poured their somewhat musically inadequate souls into the music. They sadly miss their mark, unable to see what made the original material great in its own unrefined way. The French duo Nocturnal Depression do definitely not have this problem. Near To The Stars was originally a demo recorded in 2004, containing egregiously substandard and woefully cliched depressive black metal. Now it’s back in re-recorded form. I wish it wasn’t.
So why did the duo, which consists of vocalist Lord Lokhraed and everything-else-doer Herr Suizid, decide to re-record their embarrassing basement-demo from their teenage years? Hold on to your seat – together they have released 16 demos, splits, and albums between Near To The Stars 2004 and now! Apparently Herr Suizid (yes, the guy playing all the instruments) has left the band, and Lokhraed and two new guitarists are now burning through the rest of his recordings. Averaging out at just above 1,5 releases each year, Herr Suizid must surely be proficient enough by now to truly unleash the potential of their ten year old demo?
The sad truth is that Near To The Stars sucked in 2004, and it still stinks in 2014. Seldom has the phrase “same shit, different wrapping” felt so poignant. Suizid is still cranking out crawling riffs that sound like rejected Xasthur or Nargaroth material, unfit for even Striborg’s garbage bin. Lokhraed’s lamentations are nothing to write home about either, ridiculously melodramatic and clumsy as they are. Scrapping the awful cover-art and the pitiful Emperor-cover of the 2004 demo could have been a good move. Instead the completely forgettable Forgotten Tomb rip-off “Nocte Aeterna” and an almost equally ridiculous album cover has taken its place.
As the album rounds off with the appropriately named “Lost In Nothingness”, I’m left to wonder how on earth there is a market for this stuff. Surely there is enough decent black and doom metal of the depressive bent out there to eviscerate the need for re-recordings like this? Go listen to Bethlehem, Leviathan, Thy Light; just anything but this. Nocturnal Depression’s website states the following: “a sad and grim spirit which rises from the ashes of life, representing of an unique style mixing Black Metal with Doom, Heavy and Dark Metal. An original musical concept born from the spirits of H.Suizid and Lord Lokhraed”. If only these guys were half as good at writing music as they are at preposterous overstatements, this might have been worth a second look. Avoid, avoid, avoid.
Written for The Metal Observer