Nargaroth – Era of Threnody (2017)

Hailing from Germany, today we have one-man Black Metal battalion Nargaroth delivering one of the best BM releases in the last few years with “Era of Threnody”. Featuring over 60 minutes of demoralizing music, Ash perfectly captures the dark and mystical essence of the genre and delivers ten incisive and punishing songs. With a unique energy and a high level of creativity, this release will haunt you from start to end.

Opening with a haunting combination of acoustic guitar and spoken sections, “Dawn of Epiphany” slowly morphs into a ravaging piece filled with sinister riffs and gut-wrenching vocals. This first track perfectly sets the mood for the melodic devastation of “Whither Goest Thou” and its moody atmospheric passages. As “Conjunction Underneath the Alpha” comes around, Nargaroth showcases an uncanny ability to perfectly blend emotion into their very aggressive BM core, making each track quite unique and demoralizing.

With some very well mixed Spanish guitar elements, “…As Orphans drifting in a Desert Night” is one of our favorite tracks in this release with its ravenous beauty. For more traditional Black’n’Roll-ish songs like “Love is a Dog from Hell” and “TXFO”, perfectly remind us of outfits like Satyricon and Darkthrone. The greatest surprise and most emotional track in this release has to be the album title track, clocking in at nearly 10 minutes, it slowly evolves from brutal rawness to very mellow and emotive territories.

The album closes with another brilliant moody track with “My Eternal Grief, Anguish Neverending”. It is quite impressive how Nargaroth achieves to perfectly blend emotional and melancholic elements into the brutality and relentlessness of their music in such a seamless and uncompromising way. If you are looking for Black Metal that pushes the envelope while still being gritty and aggressive, you won’t find any better release this 2017.

Label: Inter Arma Productions

Release: May 16th, 2017

Genre: Black Metal

Country: Germany