Honorable Mentions from the Abyss #23: The Noctambulant/Noctem

Hey brutal bangers,

ultimately I received many albums from Art Gates Records but, in the truth, I still had to talk about albums that they sent to me even in the last months of 2019. And, finally, only recently I found the time to talk about the two black metal albums that are the objects of this new episode of "Honorable Mentions from the Abyss".

No other words, and let's go straight to the action!

THE NOCTAMBULANT - "THE COLD AND FORMLESS DEEP"

It's very strange that a black metal band produced a hot sauce in Chili named "Unholy Benediction", don't you think? Well, the US trio The Noctambulant (FB page) did it very recently! We are talking about a band, whose name means "night walker", located in Jacksonville, Florida, that was born in 2013 and whose second album, followed by a successful European tour with Septicflesh and Hate, is entitled "The Cold and Formless Deep".

This an 11-track album (with the "Sonos Noctem" intro included) offering a melodic black metal admittedly influenced by bands like Watain and Dissection but also by non-metal acts like The Fields of the Nephilim. In fact, the band, that is now working on their third album, is good to range from songs such as "Unholy Benediction" (yes, like the aforementioned hot sauce!), that is the most violent track in the album also thanks to some death metal influences, to very dark and gothic slow tempos such as "Evil Calling", whose the band shot a promotional video that I included in "Come on, burn my ears! #6". Plus, these three demons are used to offer here and there some guitar solos a bit strange for a black metal band, like the rockish one in "Valkyrie". In brief, this is melodic black metal in the '90s way able to balance well the aggressiveness (never too extreme!) and the atmosphere.

NOCTEM - "THE BLACK CONSECRATION"

From the beautiful city of Valencia (that I visited last year) come these Noctem (FB page), a quartet that is currently one of the most relevant metal bands from Spain, also because they released album under the auspices of important labels like Metal Blade Records. Existing since 2001, they reached in 2019 the milestone of the 5th album in their career full of live shows. So, here you are "The Black Consecration"!

Promoted with the videos of the titletrack and of "Sulphur", "The Black Consecration", through its 8 tracks, spews forth essentially a furious but majestic black metal played in songs also very long like the same titletrack, lasting almost 9 minutes. But the band is well-experienced, so they are able to vary their brutal attack with elements like layered riffs or slow, diabolic and atmospheric moments also with the drums focused on the tom-toms. Nothing else to say, "The Black Consecration" is a really recommendable album, and the most fantastic thing is that Noctem are planning now a European tour between August and November 2020, touching countries like France, Germany, Belgium and others. I hope they will add my country, Italy, in the list!