ALBUM REVIEW: The Barren Form – Noctambulist

Denver, Colorado-based practitioners of blackened death metal insanity NOCTAMBULIST have signed to Willowtip Records and produced their sophomore album The Barren Form. Promising a continuation of the relentless technicality of their last work but showcasing a more intelligent form of songwriting, the album should present introspective lyrical content cloaked in a more suffocating and bleak atmosphere than the band have ever created. It’s a tall order, one that the band have certainly talked up and wrapped in an excellent and creepy piece of cover art, but can it possibly live up to what has been promised?

The Barren Form opens with Exordium, an instrumental introduction track which uses grating noise and spooky winds to build a supremely chilling atmosphere complete with strange, distant cries and ugly, gnarled feedback. It does not last long though, second track Depletion comes tearing through the gate with very technical and obtuse riffs, battering drums and deep, thunderous vocals. What becomes immediately apparent though and is deeply unfortunate, is that the mix seems somewhat shallow, losing a lot of the details of various sections, which often turns some of the more technical and battering moments into hyperspeed smudges of noise and shrieks. However, when the speed is dropped, the effect is lessened and the rear half of the track features some seriously devastating riffs and some unique, almost jazzy drum patterns.

Following this we find Infinitesimal, which opens in a similarly bludgeoning fashion to its predecessor, but leans more into straightforward blast beat-heavy territory. The intense intro then pans away into a meandering section with a stark riff, a lonely sojourn through a sunless desert, before moving into arguably the track’s strongest moment. NOCTAMBULIST begin trading off PRIMITIVE MAN-style vitriolic, sludgy riffs with tight, choking coils of tremolo picking and inexorable drum work. It’s harsh, meaty and complex in equal measure and makes for pretty sharp stuff.

Next track Engulfed pulls open the furnace door and shoves the listener’s head firmly inside. This track cranks the speed and aggression up and introduces a slightly more core inspired vocal performance, sounding at times a little like INGESTED’s recent work. It’s relentless, fierce and hateful. What comes shining through the mix here is the absolutely jaw-droppingly heavy bass tone. It sounds like a distant earthquake cracking an enormous rift into the planet’s face. Towards the end the tempo drops to a crawl and the vocals get more intense. It’s unsettling, especially when the vocals get higher and harsher and a load of discordant, schizophrenic notes get kicked up in the background before bursting into a final, frantic stampede of blackened misery.

Turning to the album’s closing moments, we arrive firstly at penultimate track Contrivance. Opening with rotten, swelling feedback, a bleak and discordant mid-paced riff brings us in and blooms out into an almost tuneful passage of restrained melodic guitar lines behind a grate of battering drum work. It’s pretty good, miserable and oppressive in equal measure, but final track Dissolution is the one where they seem to be throwing everything at the wall. It’s atmospheric, complex and punishing, bringing together key concepts from throughout the album to make a supremely unpleasant but very well-done parcel of putrid, misanthropic filth.

Overall, NOCTAMBULIST have delivered a harsh, unforgiving and atmospheric blackened death metal album. Cloying and devastating in equal measure, The Barren Form is an unsettling but satisfying experience. Unfortunately, it is also one that is hampered by a flat mix that just does it more harm than help. It feels like a lot of detail is allowed to dissipate around the edges of some of the more brute force aspects of the recording. I

f this were to be addressed before their next album, they could easily be capable of producing something that could potentially overshadow even a comparable release as generally well accepted as ULCERATE’s Stare Into Death And Be Still. All the ingredients are here to make an absolutely stellar album but until they take steps to fix this problem, they won’t be joining the high-stakes tables any time soon.

Rating: 7/10

The Barren Form is out now via Willowtip Records.

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