ALBUM REVIEW: Nadir – Black Tongue
The journey towards the centre of darkness is something the alternative music scene has strived for since the very beginning. The need to be heavier prompted a need to be darker and more harrowing, both in terms of lyrical content and musical assault, and as technology has granted a deeper access to the nastier sounds in the aether, music can become an unsettling time for those that stumble upon the right bands. Britain’s BLACK TONGUE are one such band, a leviathan skulking in the deep voids of the underground that has been lying dormant for the past four years until now.
Erupting onto the scene as pioneers of a new direction for the saturated and dull deathcore scene, BLACK TONGUE fractured skulls with their down tempo, down tuned and down right ugly approach to music, something that evolved and grew deeper with each release, until finally getting the praise it so desperately deserved on The Unconquerable Dark debut. BLACK TONGUE understood the need for development, and there were seeds on the debut that begged to be nurtured, and whilst it has taken a lengthy wait, Nadir is a worthy and superior successor in almost every way imaginable.
The Eternal Return to Ruin kicks things off with a sufficiently meaty start, reflecting the band’s lack of rust and immediate development. This is a band that have refined their approach, shed the fat and sharpened their teeth to a knife edge. The riffs are crystal clear and hit harder than they ever have all whilst Alex Teyan bellows his demonic roar, now with more range than ever as he floats between guttural lows and screeching highs, cutting through the noise with haunting cleans on tracks like A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh as well.
The album oozes dread, a lingering feeling of coming face to face with a beast far beyond your control. Nadir refers to the lowest point of someone’s life, and the album serves as the story of a soul facing judgement for their every wrong doing, creating a true sense of finality with every crushing riff and an eery sense of dread at every turn. Being overwhelmed with the sheer oppressive nature of Nadir is one of its finest qualities, this is a record that will encompass and envelope you for its entire run time, dragging you down, as Alex roars for all to follow him on The Cathedral before steamrolling the listener with audible violence thanks to a crushing breakdown.
There is a flair for theatrics that may turn fans of the more meat-and-potatoes approach the band took during their formative releases, but for those willing to be sucked further into the twisted world that Nadir paints, then Black Fawn Temple will be a chilling bridge between the grooving, writhing monster of Second Death and the most genre friendly Ultima Necat, the track that echoes the bands past the most.
This isn’t to say that BLACK TONGUE are a different band, far from it. This is a band that have allowed their expanding influences to seep deeper into their bloodied cloth, no longer held down by the constraints of wanting to be the heaviest band on the planet. BLACK TONGUE have achieved this feat already, and so allowing the grinding speed of genres like grindcore and the chilling atmospheres of black metal to work their magic on tracks like Parting Soliloquy have added untold depth to the bands music now.
Double edged swords are everywhere if you look hard enough though, and Nadir does fall victim to its own success only in the overwhelming addition of so much, and each song boasting so many noteworthy moments it means that multiple trips through the dark mire are required to fully take in all the dark horrors this album has to offer.
The four years it has taken BLACK TONGUE to craft Nadir are reflected in its maturity, creativity and suffocating atmosphere. The Hull City Hate Crew have crafted a journey into some of the bleakest depths explored by music this year in a consistent and encompassing record that demands multiple listens thanks to its surprising depth and often times shocking heaviness and violence. From a band that seemed to be nothing more than a breakdown factory at the start of their career, Nadir is an intimidating and anxiety inducing release that also serves as a prized released of the British underground scene this year.
Rating: 9/10
Nadir is out now via self-release.
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