Nocturnal Depression – Suicidal Thoughts (2011)

Filled with hate and self-destructive emotions, today we have Nocturnal Depression’s “Suicidal Thoughts” release. This release constitutes of a re-recording and re-arranging of their 2004 demo. Clocking in at 35 minutes, these four tracks deliver painful blows of nihilistic Black Metal that will surely please any fans of the genre due to their rawness and their slow tempo, reminding us a bit of Dodsferd and similar bands.

After the mysterious intro track, “When Darkness Covers My Soul” delivers the first blow with painful screams and a very well-paced tempo that keeps the song very direct and engaging without blowing up into a full on blast-beat competition. This is one of the things we like the most about Depressive/Suicidal Black Metal bands, even though we think the message is retarded, the music is pretty solid sometimes. There simple combination of the riffing, the rhythmical drumming and the keyboard hints makes this track very catchy indeed.

Things do explode on the opening of “As Blades Penetrate My Flesh” and here we get to listen to the true Black Metal side of Nocturnal Depression with blast-beats and powerful riffs. The song does settle in after the opening explosion and it nicely evolved into a Doom-ier piece, but never losing the intensely harsh vocals. The creepy sounds of “…And The Forest Answers To My Call” are very eerie and well-fitting to the powerful riffs shaping this track.

In general, “Suicidal Thoughts” is a very solid release that features raw and highly aggressive music with a melodic side to it. The band does not fall into the category of extremely raw and brutal Black Metal, but they do a fine job in stepping things up when they have to and deliver powerful and devastating tracks.

Release: 2011

Genre: Depressive Black Metal

Country: France