EP REVIEW: Demanifestation (Hymns Of Destruction And Nothingness) – Fiat Nox
Since changing their name from ASZENDENT and releasing their first demo, Light the Torches, in 2016, Bremen-based black metallers FIAT NOX have kept relatively quiet, at least in terms of musical output. That is, until last year; suddenly, the German quartet have had a slew of new releases – firstly their debut full-length, The Archive Of Nightmares in June, followed quickly by their In Contemptuous Defiance EP just over three months later. Not resting on their laurels, the band are back with yet another EP, Demanifestation (Hymns of Destruction and Nothingness), a record that takes their music to darker and more sepulchral realms than ever before.
The Enshrouded Gateway does a great job of easing the listener into this record, with polished, ethereal guitar lines and haunting ambience setting an atmospheric tone straight away. The song quickly and quite abruptly shifts into a speed-driven and ferocious sound, with thunderous drumming, razor sharp hooks and arid vocals giving this a tight and incredibly focused sound with a slight chaotic edge to it that helps the music to sound simultaneously monstrous and melodic. The chanted and denser backing vocals also add a lot of character to proceedings, providing a varied range which, when coupled with the eclectic sound and imaginative riffs, makes for an extremely broad and impressive start to this EP, one that manages to get a lot of excellent ideas into the mix without the music sounding over-crowded.
Cosmos Into Chaos (Dissymmetry, Disequilibrium, Difference) has a far more rhythmic, impenetrable sound, with gutturals and disjointed chords and guitar work applying a dark, death metal-tinged quality to this particular offering. This thicker tone and pronounced death metal influence works really well here, but doesn’t overshadow the acerbic and hypnotic black metal elements at the song’s core. Whereas its predecessor adopted catchy, melodic hooks, this song leans in the other direction, with the sound, despite being quite accessible, having a rabid, unpredictable side to it that suits the more visceral approach to the song-writing, peppering in a few slick lead hooks for good measure as the song reaches its final moments.
Demanifestation, with its marching, military opening beat and measured, brooding guitars, is a mesmerising affair that shares a lot in common with the previous track, notably the chunkier guitar sound and domineering rhythms, whilst also taking the melodic flourishes and tighter style of the record’s opener. In combining the best aspects of both tracks, it results in an imposing, claustrophobic and dissonant slab of blackened death metal with fantastic and inspired guitars which inject some lighter moments in amongst the harsher, frenetic sections that dominate the overall sound. It’s a magnificent and expansive piece of music that showcases all the record’s best features in one place, concluding on perhaps the EP’s strongest outing.
Considering that this is the band’s third separate release in just over six months, it’s incredibly impressive that Demanifestation, much like The Archive of Nightmares and In Contemptuous Defiance, is such a strong record on all fronts, not just in terms of musicianship. Listening to each of FIAT NOX‘s most recent records in order, it’s very clear that the band’s music is slowly but surely getting much more bleak and acerbic as it progresses. This EP is the natural end point of this evolution; at points the music is as cacophonous and grating as it is sharp and melodic at others, with the opaque, claustrophobic quality of the production only serving to amplify and accentuate the music’s many strengths. This is the band’s current creative zenith, and if the changes between records in recent times are anything to go by, they’ll soon be surpassing it with an album even more impressive in the near future.
Rating: 9/10
Demanifestation (Hymns Of Destruction And Nothingness) is out now via Crawling Chaos Records.
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