ALBUM REVIEW: NID: Hymner av Hat – Whoredom Rife
WHOREDOM RIFE have been carrying the torch of raw, melodic black metal since their formation back in 2014. The band plays an acerbic and haunting brand of black metal that manages to strike an excellent balance between visceral discordance and tight, intricate melodies. Coming just a year and a half after the release of their debut album, Dommedagskvad, their second record, Nid: Hymner av hat, takes the sound prevalent on the last record and their debut EP, and does a great job of tightening up the musicality and intensity of their sound, giving listeners a dark and ferocious album.
Summoning The Ravens, the album’s opening gambit, is a bleakly epic track with a strong viking metal bent to the way it is performed, from the vast and robust guitars, to the thunderous drumming patterns, which helps to make the music sound absolutely gargantuan. There’s plenty of razor sharp hooks and coarse, acidic vocal passages on offer here, which help to keep this song firmly rooted within a black metal sound. This is a truly fierce way to start this album, and it sets an incredibly high bar right out of the gate.
Verdi Oeydest proves to be a far more atmospheric track than its predecessor, with the music heading down a solidly black metal path, with steady, precise drums acting as a great base on which to build a throbbing bass and some dark, foreboding guitar passages. It’s clear from the way that this song is structured and performed that WHOREDOM RIFE are definitely students of the old school sound, with a cleaner production helping to take what would have been ferocious, raw riffs and giving them a little finesse, without overdoing it and detracting from the sound and feel of the music at all. The caustic vocals carve through the mix, and help provide some visceral and feral moments that give this song plenty of added intensity.
Where the Shadows Dwell, with its excellent acoustic guitar based opening section, which eventually resurfaces as the song reaches its climactic minutes, quickly descends into a vicious and cacophonous track built around some expansive guitar parts, which offer airy, haunting chords and grim, jarring melodies. The drums are, as always, intricate and energetic, providing a steady and impressive meter for the rest of the music to follow. Vocals are utilised sparsely, but when they do come into the equation, they do a great job of adding tonnes of depth to the already dense and powerful sound. This is a brilliant slab of melodic black metal that proves to be one of the albums key centrepieces, being not only one of the better songs on this album, but also being intensely catchy and memorable right from the first listen.
Hyllest is yet another dark, fearsome song that manages to couple blisteringly fast, sharp riffs with excellent drumming and even more impressive vocals. Singing wise, this song is fierce and filled with aggression, a fact that only serves to add plenty more anger and bile to the proceedings, making for a far more intense and vicious piece of music. With several jarring lead hooks and precise, yet chaotic musicianship, it’s an amazing piece of music that helps to provide a certain level of depth and ferocity of the overall sound of this album.
Crown Of Deceit bursts out of the speakers in a blaze of visceral, crunching chords and thunderous, cacophonous drumming, with plenty of tight, caustic lead guitar licks peppered liberally throughout. The vocals on this song are particularly fierce and intense, conveying lots of rage and genuine emotion that lends itself well to the melancholic, oppressive sound. This song rarely lets up, with the power and ferocity of the music continuing to keep up the breakneck, blistering pace for the vast majority of its six minute span. It certainly proves to be one of the more aggressive offerings on the whole record. New Hate Dawns is a whirlwind of dizzying guitars, dancing, authoritative drums and dense, rasping vocal deliveries, proving to be a full throttle aural assault. The shrill, grating leads carve through the mix and give a far more harsh sound than the altogether more majestic and grandiose quality of the bulk of the sound on this song. This is a display of excellent black metal musicianship which perfectly captures the dark and menacing side of the band really well, and acts as a brilliant climactic track, which sets the listener up nicely for the albums end.
The seventh and final track on this album, Ceremonial Incantation, ends up being a significantly different beast to the six songs that have come before it. Whereas the previous offerings were dark and dreary for the most part, this song has a much lighter, and at times even borderline uplifting sound, without losing any of the raw edge or gloomy atmosphere that have defined this record up until now. It’s got a truly monolithic sound, with sprawling, glorious guitars and steady, booming drums driving this song and acting as a great backdrop for the, as always, bestial and discordant vocals to work their magic. The band does gradually ratchet up the intensity on here as the song progresses, but it never fully launches into something unerringly vile and savage, and never losing its epic quality. It’s an amazing track that helps to bring this album to a close on an incredibly high note.
This is a really good record from WHOREDOM RIFE, one that definitely builds upon the strengths of Dommedagskvad, adding plenty of great atmospheric elements into the mix for good measure. There’s also a ton of musical variety on offer, from the powerful, viking metal trappings of Summoning The Ravens to the melodic black metal of Hyllest, which means that there’s pretty much something on here for almost every kind of black metal fan. There’s just the right amount of raw, visceral energy here to give it plenty of intensity, and it complements the soaring atmospherics brilliantly. If their next record is even on par with what they’ve done here, then they will have done a great job of cementing their musical legacy in the long run.
Rating: 8/10
NID: Hymner av hat is out now via Terratur Possessions.
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