Nachtwelten

With only one original member remaining from their original lineup, the German black metal institution known as Pestnebel has soldiered on, reaching six full length albums with their 2016 release Nachtwelten. Despite a seemingly revolving cast of members, guitarist/vocalist Pestmeister Tairach has managed to keep Pestnebel's sound an unfaltering monument hearkening to the peak of the second wave of black metal.

The album's nine tracks cover about forty-three minutes of music, yet the composition keeps things flowing along nicely. There is no downtime during the album, which given the rather raw sound presented, runs this risk of becoming tiresome, but Pestmeiester and crew pull it off laudably. The production sounds like it was taken directly from Norway in 1996 or 1997, as everything sounds authentic to the height of the second wave. The guitars are raw and trebly, but the warm tone and distinctive, swirling tremolo patterns and underlying melodies are trance-inducing. The gargling screams and relentless blasts and fills. The haunting flourishes of airy guitar leads. Seriously, everything about this is on par with what the heavyweights were doing back in the day.

Most surprisingly though, given that Pestnebel's sound is so rooted in the past, is that this doesn't sound rehashed and it doesn't sound completely derivative. Sure, it checks all of the boxes that need checked, but the songwriting flows in its own unique way, linking differing guitar passages and tempos seamlessly. It's cold, raw, and a bit abrasive, but the twisting tremolo passages and blasting rhythms are entrancing.

If someone would have handed me this album without any background information and I had no reliable access to information about the band (like it used to be back before the interwebz took over our lives), I would firmly place this album in 1996 or 1997. Everything about Nachtwelten is authentic to what made the peak of the second wave so fantastic: the raw yet warm sound of the guitars; the underlying aggression tempered by unwieldy melodies; the tone; the production. While Pestnebel's previous material is cut from the same cloth, there is something special about Nachtwelten, something that more black metal fans should be listening to.