Nostalgia - Fragments of a Broken Past

Nocturnal Depression has been with me since my youth, back then they were my soundtrack for the depression I suffered. Even today I still suffer from self-doubt, depressive phases, hypochondria and other anxiety states. Unfortunately, self-destructive thoughts are still part of my everyday life, but luckily I know how to deal with these thoughts much better today than I did then. At that time I sank into the depressive suicidal black metal with a longing for death. Strangely, I liked bands like Xasthur and Anti a lot more because, unlike Nocturnal Depression, they created a sound collage that was really deep black and deadly depressing. Today I can't hear any of these bands anymore because it creates feelings of distress, tightness and kind of fear in me. I think I have simply outgrown the depressive suicidal black metal over the years and just have no more use for this kind of music.

I'm still a big black metal fan, but my taste tends more towards a spiritual and progressive direction of music, also in black metal. In contrast to then, I'm actually fine today, despite the negative thoughts and more depressive phases that I have again and again. From the time when I was able to call depressive suicidal black metal one of my favorite genres, only Nocturnal Depression remained, and from today's perspective I can no longer see the music of this band as depressive suicidal black metal. Nocturnal Depression doesn't even come close to conveying the feeling of distress, tightness and fear that Xasthur and Anti, for example, knew how to create.

Basically, Nocturnal Depression always stood at the romantic end of the black metal scene. Their music is dark and sad but not depressing or destructive in that sense. Nocturnal Depression would like to be more extreme, because lyrically everything here deals with anguish of the soul and the ending of one's own life. The lyrical glorification of suicide is also deeply celebrated on their debut album "Nostalgia (Fragments of a Broken Past)". The lyrical themes are ridiculous and can always elicit a smile from me because Nocturnal Depression strictly want to shock, but musically "Nostalgia (Fragments of a Broken Past)" has been implemented quite well.

The version I have is the re-release from 2010 with a revised tracklist. The original version contained seven tracks and mine only contains six. This is because the medley "Suicidal Metal Anthems" has been deleted. The medley consisted of several cover versions of My Dying Bride's "My Wine in Silence", Katatonia's "Without God", Burzum's "Beholding the Daughters of the Firmament", Gorgoroth's "Bergtrollets hevn" and Nargaroth's "Herbstleyd". The fact that this track is missing makes no difference because the original Nocturnal Depression songs are all included, just in a different order.

The structure of the songs and the album itself is kept quite simple, the intro "Fragments of the Past" consists only of a guitar line and quiet ghostly whispers. The atmosphere is very spooky and eerie, the melody of the guitar is pure melancholy. Why "Fragments of the Past" has almost 5 minutes playing time is not clear to me, but this problem plagues the entire album, because it is repetitive and sometimes drawn out. "...and Fall the February Snow" on the other hand is quite varied for its standards and breaks out briefly here and there when the guitars pick up a bit, even if the drumming remains unspectacular. "A Life for Suffering" is and remains too long, with a good 13 minutes it is the epic song of the album alongside the title track and spreads a playful melancholy atmosphere. Although it takes a long time for the track to pick up speed, it is not boring. In the quieter passages it is interspersed with speech samples that repeatedly convey a feeling of sadness. The tempo is more like doom metal, slow, creeping and infused with dark romanticism. Towards the end there is a great guitar melody that has been worked towards for a good 11 minutes. A highlight, albeit a bit too long.

Basically the same applies to the title track, which seems very relaxed and spreads the typically romantic atmosphere. "In My Dreams" could have been deleted, because this track gives me nothing. It consists of 4 plucked guitar strings which are repeated for almost 5 minutes, singer Lord Lokhraed roars his soul out of the unholy body, then silence at the 5 minute mark. A strange noise can be heard and everything starts all over again, same guitar melody and screeching. "In My Dreams" ends after a good 9 minutes, making it the only but total failure on "Nostalgia (Fragments of a Broken Past)".

"Nostalgia (Fragments of a Broken Past)" is still a pretty good album today. The two man band consisting of Herr Suizid and Lord Lokhraed has created something that is unparalleled in this sector. Sweet death romantic, with a touch of melancholy but not depressing. Nocturnal Depression still has to practice building tension, even if they achieve their goal with their long compositions and the intention they are pursuing, and even go beyond it. Because although they want to appear self-destructive, they tend to create images of fog-shrouded cemeteries instead of fields full of hanging people who can no longer see the meaning of life. This music was not written to be innovative, it was written to shock, but ultimately the ugly intention turned into the best cemetery poetry one could wish for. If you see it as cemetery poetry then the typical suicide driven lyrics are also okay, in that context it's fun again.