I don’t know if it’s the same this time around because I’m way on the outs of the proverbial loop, but in 2008, when Chicago outfit Nachtmystium released their Century Media debut, Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1, the anticipation was rabid and the reaction was so saliva-laden it was comical. It occurred to me the other day I haven’t gotten the same kind of fever-pitch vibe surrounding the follow-up full-length, Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. 2, but I’m more than willing to allow that’s because, in the two years since the last album, I’ve almost entirely stopped paying attention. So the situation might be the same and I just don’t know about it. Hype doesn’t make a difference listening anyway.

As regards that (listening), Addicts is a curious case. While “High on Hate,” which follows a minute and a half of spell-it-out introduction, could easily fit into a black metal mold at least as established by the last album, much of Nachtmystium’s material on the second offering of their Century Media era finds itself pushing forcefully outside the lines of that genre. “Nightfall” begins with and maintains a spirit akin to Queens of the Stone Age’s “No One Knows,” and the insistent/incessant keyboard runs of “No Funeral” (provided by producer Sanford Parker) would also seem to place the track elsewhere categorically. Yet, throughout these songs and later genre-benders, the production maintained is thoroughly black metal, by which I mean lo-fi and almost purposefully underproduced. A headphone session reveals more psychedelic complexities of sound that regular speaker listening glosses over, and though I personally find it harder to listen to Addicts because of this, it can only be on purpose, since with the likes of Sanford Parker and Nachtmystium main man Blake Judd at the helm of the recording, it’s not as though either party doesn’t know what they’re doing.

Rather, I think it’s a case of Judd and whoever in the rotating cast of Nachtmystium players with whom he wrote these songs having simply outgrown the style in which they began – namely black metal. I’m sure if you were to ask Judd what he thinks of black metal, he’d say either that he doesn’t play it or that he doesn’t give a shit (and both may be true), but if genre concerns weren’t on his mind at least on some level, they wouldn’t be acknowledged in the album’s title at all, let alone in the fucking-with pun manner they are. So what we get is “black meddle,” reshaping a genre the band would probably be better off leaving behind altogether, at least in terms of production. Hell, if you want to compare labelmates, look at the Triptykon CD Century Media released earlier this year. Every nuance of that album was up front and clear, whereas with Addicts I feel like something’s trying to hide from me while I listen, as though Judd is embarrassed by his creativity and sans-box songwriting. Push that to the fore. I don’t give a shit if it’s kvlt. I want it to kick my ass, and if the corpsepaint needs to go for that to happen, so be it.

By way of a comparison point, I’ll liken it to Metallica’s Ride the Lightning, by which point the band had most definitely gone beyond their simple thrash starting point and was in the process of becoming something entirely different and unto themselves. Yet, if you listen to that album, it’s still produced like a thrash album and the songs ultimately suffer for it. Nachtmystium are in a similar position here. I won’t decry the work of Parker because he’s more than proven himself a capable producer over the course of the last decade, but it’s the overall mindset that opted for the black metal aesthetic that I think does the material a disservice. Even as the catchy “Addicts” plays out with its throttling, driven rhythms, I can’t help but feel there’s more going on dramatically with the track than the genre can hold. Go beyond, gentlemen.

That said, if we’re still going to classify it as such (and I think the overall feel of the album demands that we do), Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. 2 is hands down the best American black metal album you’re going to hear this year. With session drums from Leviathan’s Wrest, guest vocals from Yakuza’s Bruce Lamont, guitar work donated by Russ Strahan (ex-Pentagram) and Matt Johnson (Pharaoh), not to mention a live incarnation with members of Lord Mantis and Avichi, Nachtmystium is more than practically a supergroup, even if it’s still Judd steering the ship. It’s worth noting that the early drive noted in tracks like “Nightfall” and will to defy the standard procedure to which so many bands adhere does not dissipate in the album’s later material, whether it’s the extended guitar passage of “The End is Eternal’ (echoes of “Assassins” from the last album), the underlying sample work on “Blood Trance Fusion” or the explicitly doomed pacing of closer “Every Last Drop.” The cohesive component of Addicts is Judd’s blatant musical rebellion, and though there are disparate sounds, what gives the album its strength is the confidence with which it’s executed and the consistency of theme and approach across the board.

Perhaps that’s the purpose of the production; to provide a common base and set up Addicts more as an album than a collection of individually conceived tracks. If that’s the case – and even if it’s not – Nachtmystium’s fifth full-length can’t be called anything but a success. It proves the outfit is growing, changing and becoming a unique beast, which is the goal of any band looking to make a difference. I’ll stop short of waxing hyperbolic on the future impact on American black metal or Nachtmystium’s import in the genre it seems to be struggling against, but suffice it to say Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. 2 continues and expands the mission laid out on its predecessor, and thus well earns any and all hype it may or may not be getting.

Nachtmystium on MySpace

Century Media

Tags: Century Media, Chicago, Illinois, Nachtmystium

This entry was posted on Friday, May 7th, 2010 at 11:46 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.