Ninkharsag - The Dread March Of Solemn Gods

 

Key Facts

Country: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Genre: Black Metal

Release Date: 30th April 2021

Record Label(s): Vendetta Records

Band Members

Paul Armitstead - Guitars

Jay Pipprell - Drums 

Kyle Nesbitt - Vocals, Guitars 

Aleksandar Kokai - Bass 

Ninkharsag - Strigoi Diabolicum

Review 

Rating (out of 5🤘): 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘

Favourite Track(s): Under The Dead Of Night, Lunar Hex; The Art of Mighty Lycanthropy, Discipline Through Black Sorcery, The Tower Of Perpetual Twilight, 

Channelling the relentless fury of the black metal gods with the satanic tendencies of these British Isles, English black metal heavyweights Ninkharsag are back with a crushing new album that will feed the black hole abyss in your soul. Utilising the traditional style of black metal, the band are relentless in delivering and uncompromising and brutal album packed with plenty of riffs. Not only is the music interesting and mysterious, the band's name is also worthy of note. According to Sumerian mythology, Ninhursag or Ninkharsag is the mother and fertility goddess of the mountains. She can be identified in temple hymns as the 'true and great lady of heaven' and she is often accompanied by an 'omega' motif for her omega-shaped hair. This is only the band's second album, their debut The Blood of Celestial Kings came out in 2015. It has been a long six years but join Ninkharsag on The Dread March Of Solemn Gods. 

Musically the album is steeped in black metal tradition, but with distinct melodic flair. Combined with the vivid storytelling and crystal clear vocals The Dread March Of Solemn Gods is a gold mine for the imagination as it conjures up evil and macabre imagery in a wintery, frost ridden soundscape. Considering this album was six years in the making, it has definitely been worth the wait, as the band have significantly upped their game. The standard of songwriting alone has been improved tenfold compared to The Blood of Celestial Kings. The melodies are finely woven with sinister and dark intent, weaving their way between heavy Darkthrone-esque chord riffs and thumping old school waltz rhythms. Opening up with an In The Nightside Eclipse introduction in the form of Night Wrath, the album takes all of those two minutes to ease you into the album before thrusting you straight into the shadows with beastly, brutally relentless riffs and blast beats. Each song contains a well crafted and vividly told story, with subject matter ranging from ancient history to magic and occultism, making you feel like a wanderer, walking deep in a dark and forsaken land collecting harrowing folk tales, myths and legends from a scarce and ravaged population. The most captivating is Lunar Hex; The Art of Mighty Lycanthropy, as it looks into the mythological ability to be able to transform into an animal state, in layman's terms, most commonly this is to do with a werewolf. The most famous of these werewolf stories outside of mythology is the one of Germany's Peter Stumpp in 1589, which lends itself to the grizzly imagery depicted in the song (you can do your own research). Whilst Discipline Through Black Sorcery explores esoteric and magic, stirring up a whirlwind of incantations and spells with its mesmeric swirling and chaotic riffs. Conceptually, there is something for everyone to indulge their black hearts in. The dual lead guitars that appear throughout the album also gives The Dread March Of Solemn Gods a small NWOBHM vibe. Fusing the soaring melodies of Iron Maiden-esque solos, refining them and then putting them to crushing black metal chaos really makes them stand out. The Tower of Perpetual Twilight demonstrates this perfectly, effortlessly transitioning between pure chaos and delicate, instantly atmospheric melodic sections and using the dynamics to give the song a significant impact. This fusion of traditional black metal with some NWOBHM elements gives the album a uniqueness that hasn't been heard in a while, and marks it out as distinctly British. Although it sounds influenced by the Norwegian greats by utilising the more melodic aspects of British metal, it gives Ninkharsag a unique appeal, especially as it can be heard more clearly compared to being buried beneath fuzz on The Blood of Celestial Kings. Overall, the album is an immersive listening experience, taking you into cold and barren landscapes filled with dark shadows and sinister magic. Its unique sound and mysterious, eerie essence is sure to delight many a black metal fan whilst simultaneously putting British black metal in the spotlight. 

Just like the songwriting, Ninkharsag means of production has also improved significantly. Moving away from the savage rawness of  The Blood of Celestial Kings, The Dread March Of Solemn Gods is a much colder sounding and more clinically produced album. With that in mind, it still keeps the raw energy that the band posses, just layered it up and made it an evil and skull crushing wall of sound. The rhythm guitars have a a cold distortion to them, very much like the traditional old school black metal tone, kind of scratchy yet not too treble loaded that it's just squealing noise. The lead tones have a wonderful crispness to them, the sharp tones works well for the lead melodies and with a small amount of reverb the band have managed to make a cavernous atmosphere. The bass rumbles underneath, adding weight to the guitars to give them an extra punch. The kick is thick and heavy, pounding and driving through the songs, it should be noted that the toms have a meaty sound to them and stand out in the drum mix. With a snare snapping away like a heavy duty SMG, all these elements together give you the perfect modern black metal mix. The vocals are very central and surprisingly prominent which is refreshing as you are able to really hear and comprehend the lyrics. Overall it is an incredibly well produced modern black metal album that shows of the band's compositional talents so much better than their previous work. 

If you fancy some dark, sinister and evil black metal from these haunted isles, get Ninkharsag's The Dread March Of Solemn Gods in your ears now. 

Ninkharsag - The Dread March Of Solemn Gods