ALBUM REVIEW: Serpens Abyssi – Nahasheol
Although they only formed last year, NAHASHEOL have very quickly managed to establish themselves within the black metal underground as one of its more acerbic and impactful up-and-coming acts. The band’s debut EP, Kaasoth, managed to include more ideas over its three songs than some bands place in a whole album, and showcased their mix of tight musicality and visceral intensity. Their debut album, Serpens Abyssi, re-records those three EP tracks, alongside three new offerings that explore the band’s core elements in greater depth, creating a more powerful and impactful record in the process.
Arcanum Mortuus makes for a muscular and disjointed start to proceedings, with sharp leads, frenetic drumming and throaty vocals creating an imposing wall of noise. It’s all wrapped up in a polished and ethereal production that allows the tighter elements within the music to stand out, creating a slick and focused sound with just the right amount of murkiness thrown in to foster a darker feeling. The Aetheric Void follows this same dissonant blackened death metal template, with far more feral rhythms and sudden tempo shifts immediately making this feel a lot more unpredictable, although this chaotic edge is still tempered by the angular and precise approach of all of the musical elements, again striking a fine balance between lean hooks and jarring intensity without favouring one side of this sound too prominently.
The Awakening features slower moments and a thicker guitar sound that creates a much more measured and weighty sound than the unflinching speed and intricacy of the first two tracks. It also begins to insert some spartan melodic flourishes into the cacophony that again sees the music shift away from the formula of the tracks this album began on, creating a dramatic and monolithic sound that, in spite of its reserved touches, is another domineering juggernaut that possesses some excellent riffs and atonal vocal performances. Bringer Of Divine Ecstasy lurches abruptly back towards the discordant leads, energised, urgent drums and demented vocals of Arcanum Mortuus, but places a lot more emphasis upon the black metal undercurrent rather than blackened death, crafting a much more caustic and rabid style than was present on the album’s first half, and fully embracing the overarching dissonance, coupled with haunting ambient interludes, that has characterised the majority of this album.
Mambah Maa continues in a similar vein, with bleak chords and thunderous drumming contributing to a hazy and noxious juggernaut of a song that plays with expansive distortion that lends this a far more straightforward and hypnotic sound, with subtle, grating rhythmic undercurrents, visceral vocals and authoritative drums allowing for a sinister and raucous backbone to the lighter components that dominate much of the music here. Devan Thanatha, despite being every bit as sprawling and bestial as the preceding five offerings, has a far catchier, melody-driven guitar sound that makes this feel a lot more punchy and accessible than the rest of the album, without sacrificing any of the core aggression, making it a suitably powerful and climactic conclusion to the record.
Overall, Serpens Abyssi builds upon the already solid foundation that Kaasoth laid out for NAHASHEOL, with the new versions of the tracks from that EP feeling sharper whilst capturing the murky atmosphere of the originals. The three new songs that make up the first half of this album slot in perfectly alongside the second half, and fit so cohesively with the older output that they could just as easily have been written and recorded at the same time as their debut EP. NAHASHEOL have not only struck while the iron is hot with this album, but also created an exceptionally dark and sinister record in the process, one that will hopefully be the first of many greats from these burgeoning blackened death metallers.
Rating: 8/10
Serpens Abyssi is out now via Wolves Of Hades/Argento Records.
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