Nergal

Absinthos

Supreme Music Creations 2007

After 12 years of silence and virtual inactivity Greek legends Nergal return with their new album Absinthos.  What has 12 years done to their sound and style?  Nothing.  They are still weaving songs of traditional Hellenic styled black metal with its quirky but unmistakable melodies and lack of blast beats.  For this I am supremely grateful as too many of the old Greek bands have either disappeared or cleaned up their sound and lost their early magic (a la Rotting Christ).  One thing is for sure, the old Greek scene had a special sound/style all its own and it was nothing like all the Nordic sounding bands from all over the world.  It was something something completely unique.  The only significant/noticeable change is that the drumming is much tighter than in the past where all the bands sounded really sloppy in that department.  But to me that was part of their charm.  This doesn't really add or detract from the music though since with me the whole reason for listening to the Greek bands was their awesome melodies which Nergal spews forth in abundance.  My favorite song Invisible Existence embodies everything about this particular style from its meandering yet repetitive melody to its simplistic but extremely effective keyboard accents.  Anyone familiar with Rotting Christ's Thy Mighty Contract will immediately know what I mean.  Deliverance by the Tyranny of Life is also another highlight with its more rhythmic feel and thicker atmosphere.  One of the main complaints I have with this album is I wish it were longer as it only contains 7 tracks and one of them is a six minute instrumental that closes out the album.  For those of you still looking for bands in the old Unisound/Hellenic vein then you would do well to get ahold of the new Nergal album as soon as you can.  You won't regret it.