Nachtvorst
Silence

No, it cannot be. You listen again, raise your head, gaze into the void and once more press the play button because you can't come to terms with all of this. Nachtvorst, authors of a remarkable debut with 'Stills', have gotten lost in the proverbial glass of water.

Granted, the desire for change is greatly appreciated, but one must also admit that the result is among the worst. 'Silence' presents itself with a splendid cover that already hints at the departure from the more canonical doom/black metal that characterized the Dutch duo so far. Doom takes over, but whereas they previously succeeded in capturing you in precious funeral atmospheres, in the same way, they now prove absolutely unsuited to playing doom and its derivatives. First of all, there is to be noted a fracture in the body of the songs; take the opener for example: the first half is slow and doomish, without any surprises and with neither an ounce of inventiveness in the riffs nor the vocal lines; the second half drags on with the same initial motif but without singing and with a guitar reminiscent of the past when Nachtvorst managed to convey emotions.

The final piano tries to hit the mark, succeeding only partially. "Nightwinds" starts off aggressive and classically black, fades out in the middle, the restart takes off too soon, the escalation of guitar wastes the chance to dignify the piece. The badge for best song goes to "Gentle Notice Of A Final Breath," in which doom momentarily returns to the service of a black soul, the finale is very evocative: arpeggiated, naturalistic, here the fury of the elements explodes, here we found the Nachtvorst we knew. When the ideas don't come, where can you go to seek refuge? The ever-effective blast beat. It's a pity that it's not the right time to use it, a pity that a large portion of the audience has already decided to change the CD.

Give us back the old Nachtvorst.