ALBUM REVIEW: Descending Into A Deeper Darkness – Naxen
Although the band has only been active for around six years, Germany’s NAXEN may have already established themselves as one of black metal’s most singularly inventive creative forces. Embracing a sound that has one foot firmly planted in the genre’s second wave, but heaping on tonnes of atmosphere, solid melodies and frenetic bursts of brutality, the trio already boast one majestic musical offering in the form of their debut album, 2020’s Towards The Tomb Of Times, an album that possessed an almost fully formed sound and style which instantly turned plenty of heads, setting a lofty creative bar for the band to surpass. Their second album, Descending Into A Deeper Darkness, pushes the various elements within their debut’s sound to new heights, with the end result being a much more muscular and adventurous take on the style of its predecessor.
Our Souls Shall Fall Forever is an ambitious and cavernous start to the record, with huge, weighty guitars, thunderous drums and ethereal ambience creating a powerful sound immediately, with the sudden lurch towards harsher, speed-driven aggression working extremely well. Bellicose, snarling vocals carve through the discordant leads and domineering drums, matching the visceral touches within the song’s sound perfectly. These chaotic and frenetic elements are counterpointed by excellently spartan but effective melodies that pierce through the murkier, harder moments, adding a lighter, catchier edge to what is, for the most part, a feral and engrossing piece of vitriolic black metal.
To Writhe In The Womb Of Night sees this savage and claustrophobic formula continue, but here the band begin to explore the expansive, epic elements that were peppered throughout the first track, with soaring guitars and denser, percussive drums broadening the scope of this song, and the acidic bark of the vocals complementing the fiercer sections whilst simultaneously standing in stark contrast with the grand, atmospheric parts.
A Shadow In The Fire – Part III (A Life Led By Loss) opts for a slower pace and fuller chords, along with gargantuan drums, to achieve a bombastic sound, eschewing the blistering and frenzied bursts of belligerence that characterised the album’s first half in favour of a focused, lean style that emphasises the sharper, more polished qualities of the lead guitars and an intricate approach to musicianship that allows subtler, delicate components to get a hearing in a way that they wouldn’t have had this song been played faster. Even the vocals, although still acerbic at times, begin to incorporate sonorous clean passages, which adds another dimension to this song, providing a borderline Viking metal edge that sounds fantastic when it is utilised.
Triumphant Tongue Of A Thousand Swords takes the monolithic template that the preceding three tracks have been developing towards its natural conclusion, with every aspect of the music feeling grand and anthemic. The cacophonous intensity that marked the first two tracks comes back with a vengeance, interspersing caustic aggression in amongst the slicker, punchy sections easily, with the song ebbing and flowing between these musical extremes without allowing one element to dominate and take over from the other.
To create an album that manages to do as much within the strict confines of traditional black metal in the way that Descending Into A Deeper Darkness does is an impressive feat, as although this style of black metal is timeless, it is often easy to slip into a formulaic sound. The fine balance that is struck between blistering intensity and punchy melodicism is genuinely magnificent, and develops the gargantuan sound that was present on Towards The Tomb Of Times even further, trimming away what little fat there was and leaving only lean, visceral extremity in its wake. The longer format of each of these four tracks, a stylistic choice that runs the risk of alienating the listener, is well utilised here, allowing NAXEN to explore ideas in greater depth than they would have in a shorter, snappier compositions. NAXEN‘s stunning repertoire is only set to expand further if they continue to produce music of this calibre, and if what they produce next is even slightly stronger than the foundations laid by their first two records, then they may well become one of black metal’s most effective modern acts.
Rating: 9/10
Descending Into A Deeper Darkness is out now via Vendetta Records.
Like NAXEN on Facebook.