Reviews: SAT311
< Обратно к релизу / Back to page
The creative energies of Swiss artist Bornyhake Ormenos seem boundless, and so multifarious that each impulsive surge of them may give rise to some new project, which seems to be the case in the spawning of his solo project Nivatakavachas.
Undoubtedly, this new menace has been gestating for some unknown period of time, building up its stockpile of evil power, but it is now ready to be revealed through a debut album named Ascraedunum, set for release by Satanath Records and Azif Records tomorrow (April 6th). One day early, we have a full stream of it for you.
“Atmospheric death metal” is inscribed on the the advance banners for the music, and it is that, but it is also viscerally brutal and stunningly malevolent. Its storming assaults are devastating in their intensity, generating vortexes of all-consuming turbulence and unreasoning savagery.
That in itself is an “atmospheric” quality, but it’s more likely that the term derives instead from Bornyhake’s incorporation of musical elements that also make the music seem pan-dimensional, parting veils into blood-freeing realms where diabolical spirits wail and unearthly powers spread their wings in terrible grandeur.
It’s a 34-minute album, but divided among only three songs. They will test your endurance.
“Capnomancy” inflicts a battering percussive assault enmeshed with heavy, cruel, roiling riffage, malevolent guttural growls, livid lycanthropic howls, and feverishly glittering melodies that climb high and seem to cry out in dangerous ecstasy.
The rhythms also jolt and jar, stagger and lurch, spit bullets and crawl through tar, and the music becomes eerie and unsettling as well as reverberating in ethereal, chime-like whispers. The combination of cold, oppressive, gut-gouging heaviness and startling, celestial brilliance makes for a riveting contrast.
“Oneiromancy” combines similar but slightly variant ingredients. It hammers like overdriven pistons while exhaling a groaning miasma of sickness, and it also delivers seizures of glittering effervescence that are somehow both wondrous and unnerving.
Sweeping waves of hopeless melancholy and blistering lunacy cascade over punishing drum-work as the vocals vent ravaging roars and paralyzing screams. The rhythms shift into a strange gallop as the riffing buzzes like flesh-eating hornets, and the song ejects double-kick munitions while those high flickering tones become spasms of pain.
The vicious turbulence and turmoil of the song are unabating, and yet the music again soars in nova-like brilliance, painting vast nebulae in sound.
While the first two songs are both nearly 10 minutes long, the last of the three clocks in at 14 1/2 minutes. “Hepatoscopy” wastes no time resuming the assault of voracious growls, pummeling percussion, groaning and grinding low-end currents, and soaring, sparkling spectacles high above. The pounding and slashing chords and fast-pumping drums are mercilessly brutal, in contrast to the wraithlike unearthliness and blazing sheen of other aspects of the music.
The constantly changing drumming reaches heights of maniacal, bone-smashing slaughter, and at times the riffing sounds like boiling poison, while the vocals are as tyrannically monstrous as ever. It’s a tumultuous vortex of menace and violence within a shroud of supernatural light, urged on by wailing specters — and if you’re waiting for some kind of relief, it really doesn’t ever come, even at the end when the drums vanish and terrorizing hallucinations descend.
Satanath Records and Azif Records recommend Ascraedunum for fans of Atrocity, Morbid Angel, Acheron, Gorguts, and Morgoth. It features cover art by Alexandra Vigier, a logo by Christophe Szpajdel, and layout by Jane Orpheus.
The latest album by Swiss artist Nivatakavachas was released earlier this year, and extreme metal is the chosen genre on "Ascraedunum". Dark, loud, hard and gnarly guitar riffs dominate this album through and through, delivered in a few different tempo modes and often with a distanced harmony motif on top which adds an unnerving, cold or sickly sounding vibe to the proceedings and conjures something of an alien atmosphere to boot. Dark, growl style vocals delivers the lyrics, and the rhythm section is a solid one fitting the premises and context. There's something of a raw and primal feel to the music as well, and it may be worth noting that the average length of the songs here is around the 10 minute mark. Those who think that a description such as primal death metal sounds interesting should probably feel right at home with this album.
https://www.facebook.com/wildernessviking/posts/4072870446144624
Corroído hasta lo más profundo del alma, observaba como iban transcurriendo los eternos días. El sentimiento de soledad era cada vez más grande, al igual que su cada vez mayor conexión con el mundo que le rodeaba. La vida se le escurría entre las manos. Mientras, la totalidad de sueños e ilusiones que hasta no hace demasiado tiempo le daban fuerza para seguir se diluían en un mar de espeso pesimismo y desidia. Nada valía nada….
Bienvenidos al universo de Nivatakavachas.
El L.P debut de la One Man Band de Atmospheric Death Metal Nivatakavachas llamado «Ascraedunum», vio la luz el 6 de abril de 2021 gracias a Satanath Records y Azif Records.
Pero, ¿quién está detrás de dicho proyecto? La respuesta es simple. Bornyhake es el encargado de las voces y de la totalidad de los instrumentos.
Conforme transcurría la inicial ‘Capnomancy‘ percibía de forma clara que estaba ante algo especial, mas no terminaba de cuajarme del todo. Sin embargo, y una vez terminé de catar el disco en cuestión, solo pude hacer una cosa: caer rendido ante los pies de Bornyhake, y darle las gracias por crear semejante bestia sónica. Señoras y señores, proyectos así son los que realmente mantienen viva la llama del «Metal Muerto» independientemente de la variante a la que corresponda. Da gusto cuando uno se topa con algo espeluznante a la par que único dentro de un panorama musical cada vez más saturado de grupos con escaso talento.
Los destensados y arrastrados riffs parecen haber sido grabados en lo más profundo del Infierno. Son incómodos, punzantes y letales hasta decir basta. La única pega que podría ponerle de forma subjetiva es la ausencia total de solos. Por lo demás, poca broma con las dobles armonías y embistes de tremolo picking. Os aseguro que os helarán la sangre.
Gracias a Odín, aquí no hay mamarrachadas de clean vocals, dobles registros vocales y demás memeces. Y no me extraña, con los cavernosos y adictivos guturales que dominan con mano dura los casi 34 minutos que dura el álbum tenemos más que de sobra para no parar de alucinar.
La percusión es dinámica hasta reventar. Lo mismo es rotunda cual pisada de T Rex que más veloz que un rayo. Así da gusto sí señor.
Mi canción predilecta ha sido ‘Oneiromancy‘. Hacedme caso y catadla.
Si estáis hartos de «ruido» radical estanco, no dudéis en haceros con una copia de «Ascraedunum».
https://www.brokentombmagazine.com/2021/05/31/critica-nivatakavachas-ascraedunum-2021/
Probabilmente non è un disco alla portata di tutti questo "Ascraedunum", debut album della one man band svizzera Nivatakavachas, progetto in cui ad occuparsi di tutto è Bornyhake, artista di Losanna che ha unito il proprio nome ad altre realtà come Pure, Enoid ed Ancient Moon tra i tanti altri. Quello che da Satanath Records - che ha co-prodotto l'album con Azif Records - presenta come Atmospheric Death Metal, è in realtà la summa di diverse correnti di pensiero del genere che qui s'incontrano e s'intersecano lungo i tre lunghi brani che compongono la tracklist, dal Death Metal "classico" dei Morbid Angel alle venature Blackened degli Incantation, passando per la "new-old school" odierna (Tomb Mold, Mortiferum, Spectral Voice, ecc. ecc.), fino a psicotici passaggi avanguardistici sulla scia di Ulcerate e Gorguts. Il risultato finale è un album che seppur formato da soli tre pezzi supera la mezz'ora, cosa che alla lunga porta "Ascraedunum" ad essere un lavoro non proprio facilmente 'digeribile'. La produzione volutamente - immaginiamo - sporca riesce ben a sposarsi con le sonorità della one man band svizzera, capace di saper unire abbastanza bene le diverse influenze anche all'interno di uno stesso brano; siamo ben lungi dalla perfezione sia chiaro, anzi alcuni cambi di tempo/stile appaiono in alcuni un po' troppo repentini e "forzati" (vedasi ad esempio verso la metà di "Oneiromancy"), ma in ogni caso l'operato di Nivatakavachas non lascia del tutto indifferenti: persino certi riff che sulle prime possono sembrare insopportabilmente ridondanti, ad un ascolto più attento rientrano perfettamente nell'economia del disco.
Non ci sentiamo magari di consigliare a chiunque l'ascolto di "Ascraedunum", ma nel caso siate chi ancora oggi predilige la vecchia scuola e non si fa problemi ad ascoltare un lavoro che sotto il paino della produzione è volutamente grezzo e tagliente, allora il debut album di Nivatakavachas potrebbe essere una buona sorpresa.
One man from Switzerland known as Bornyhake, known for his other acts like Pure, Borgne, Enoid, and many others, has yet again presented us with a new morbid offering for us to listen to. This latest atmospheric step into death metal known as Nivatakavachas is a cacophony of of dark and twisted riffs accumulated together in a wicked thirty-three minute aural assault.
Getting into it right away, there's no messing around with the start. Immediately you're bombarded by massive sounding drums, twisting guitar riffs with an ear piercing tone to it and harsh vocals calling out from the nether. The production style is also very high quality, keeping the raw aggression where it needs to while keeping the integrity of the instruments alive. With only three tracks on the album, its impressive how much Bronyhake was able to fit into this release. The songs are all very progressive with tempo changes and wicked solos that rocks one to their very core. There are some black metal influences in here as well thanks to the first track mainly.
The first track Capnomancy is almost like a very fine blend of black and death genres mixed together, with the blast beats and dissonant guitar pieces, its only when the tempo change suddenly happens where its clear, with just how heavy and brutal the bass guitar is that it is indeed death metal. Each instrument is played flawlessly, and as I've mentioned in my other reviews, there's something about one man acts that I get drawn to. The focus is very prominent in this particular act, and you don't get much bleed over from his other works. Its clear that when Bornyhake has a vision, he sticks to it and doesn't deviate from it at all.
As the album later progresses the death metal parts become very clear as the second track Oneiromancy is a very brutal and fast paced song that leaves no prisoner behind. This track in particular is my favorite because of a certain guitar passage towards the middle of the song that is almost psychedelic and very atmospheric thanks to the, what I can only assume is some sort of synth that drones in the background and creates a very demented sound, and a great backdrop for the guitar. This later repeats later on in the track and it just doesn't get tiring at all.
And finally the last track, and the longest one at that, Hepatoscopy, is just your run of the mill death metal track. Very brutal, very heavy, and very dark. It honestly can get a little bit tiring towards the end, but its a good listen if you single it out on its own. It feels like a smaller album within an album if that makes any sense.
Either way, this album is a very solid release, and a perfect addition to Bornyhake's catalogue of cryptic aural darkness. Highly recommend this one if you like your death metal to be atmospheric and have a little bit of black metal qualities in them.
http://www.runicreviews.com/2021/07/nivatakavachas-ascraedunum.html
Review.
https://www.dargedik.com/2021/05/nivatakavachas-ascraedunum-2021-resena.html