Nightbringer- Death and the Black Work

Nightbringer is a black metal band from Colorado that formed back in 1999. This is their first full-length released in 2008 after a slew of demos and splits. As a whole when comparing this to their past work there are obvious similarities. The style itself is pretty much unchanged, but everything has grown. This full-length is a much more dense experience than any of their previous work and it seems to flow without flaw. All the tracks on the album exceed seven minutes in length and the total playtime between the seven songs comes out at around an hour.

The album opens with "Capuf Draconis- Black Saturn" which opens with some subtle sounds that slowly grow more intense, then you begin to hear the distant cries of people in pain. This goes on for about three minutes and then after a brief silence the music comes in. Already, just over three minutes into the album, the tone is set. From this moment on you will be completely infatuated by the sounds coming from the speakers.

Right off the start Nightbringer lets you, the listener, know that you're in for a hellish ride. Some moments featured here are quite haunting but peppered within there are also moments that almost count as relaxing. Though the album never strays away from the grim, evil noise that one would expect it does have quite a bit of variation. The pace changes frequently and there are very doomy moments to be found throughout.

The sound on Death and the Black Work is absolutely gigantic. It is drenched in distortion and reverb but it all comes together perfectly and forms one huge wave of overwhelming black metal mastery. The main thing that makes this so appealing is the atmosphere it creates. Not one track comes to mind in recent memory that matches "Feast of the Wanes" in terms of capturing such a sinister sound. The drumming on this record doesn't call for the typical nonstop blasting. The pace changes frequently throughout all the tracks featured here and this makes the drumming featured a very unique listen. The vocals aren't anything too special, the normal tortured shrieks are used almost exclusively. They are particularly convincing but nothing to write home about.

Overall Nightbringer's first full-length Death and the Black Work still proves to be their best effort thus far. The band still releases quality material but those looking to get into them should start here. Anybody remotely into black metal should give this a listen, fans of black metal with a heavy use of atmosphere should definitely add this to the top of the to get list. Give it a shot.