Noctiferia – Death Culture (2010)

If you ever wondered what would happen if Fear Factory, Meshuggah and Gojira had a genetically engineered son, then it would sound just like Noctiferia does. The band has spent plenty of years trying to find their own sound, and on their earlier days they focused more on Melodic Black/Death Metal. On this 2010, they deliver “Death Culture” an album so rich in both style and content that will have you listening to it for quite a while in order to fully digest it.

The band features the chugging riffing of Fear Factory, combined with the surgically precise (and impressive) drumming of Meshuggah. On top of these elements they offer aggressive vocals like Gojira, Hacride, etc, making their sound very dynamic and brutal. The band has surely outdone themselves with “Death Culture” since it’s their best effort to date.

On top of all the previously mentioned elements we get some nice keyboards and electronic sounds to add to the overall richness of the music, reminding us of Sybreed and similar bands. Some people might be put out by the ‘borrowing’ of so many different elements from other bands, but Noctiferia does a great job at owning them and producing solid tracks that could not be called rehashes of anything in a million years.

With the superb mixing abilities of Peter Tagtgren, the bands music comes to life in a very astonishing way. Every element in this release is mixed just right to create a very cohesive sound that will blow you away since the album starts. The changes between technical sections and melodic rhythms are done very nicely and provide great transitions within the songs.

On the other side we are not big fans of the direction some Modern Metal bands are taking with their sound, probably because of it’s roots on Nu Metal, but Noctiferia does a pretty good job in staying with our parameters of acceptable ‘Modern-ess’ in a bands sound.

We enjoy everything that has enough technical merit and features elements from great bands done in a correct manner. “Death Culture” will surely be one of the best releases of 2010 because of the richness and diversity that the 13 songs in this album present. If you are a fan of ANY of the previously mentioned bands, you will want to make sweet love to this album.

Release: July 13th, 2010

Country: Slovenia