black metal
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What a truly spectacular start for me for 2016. I've already discovered some amazing new bands, like Pinkshinyultrablast, and on top that some of my favorite acts emerged again after seemingly being on-hold for an indefinite time. Book Of Sand released an amazing new album, as well as my favorite black metal band of all time, Wrath Of The Weak.
Which brings me to this new Nested release. J. from Nested is also the sole member behind Wrath Of The Weak. On the eponymous 2014 release (that I put on the number 1 spot for 'Best of 2014') Nested was not so much a continuation of the sound of WOTW, as a kind of re-imaging of what that project was about. Pulsing, throbbing, static and blissed-out drones, a more skeletal version of the monotonous black metal whirlwind WOTW, which was almost ambient on its final couple of releases. However, the line between those two acts is starting to get a little more blurred now, because '3' has quite a bit in common with WOTW's 2010 album 'Solace'. It is a lot more abrasive than the first one, that's for sure. It offsets that abrasiveness in a brilliant way by combining it with blurred and blissed-out drones. It is also much less rhythmic than the first one, which at times even veered almost towards post-punk atmospheres. Here, only the track 'For all was made redundant' has a deep, throbbing pulse-like beat buried in the layers of (guitar)drones and static.
Both Nested as well as Wrath Of The Weak have this unique ability to sound like nothing else. WOTW did it for black metal and Nested does it for drone. What strikes me is that J. remains so modest about it. He is an exceptional songwriter that has the ability to redefine genres and drag them out of stagnation.
In the seemingly endless stream of drone and ambient releases it can be very hard to stand out. Most of it is pretty decent, some of it is even pretty damn good, but it takes something special to truly stand out of the crowd. And even though I can't quite put my finger on it why Nested is so spectacular for me I can see this easily entering my top 3 for 2016. Where J. will most likely compete with himself because even though I haven't reviewed it yet, the new Wrath Of The Weak is nothing short of amazing too...
Bjorn
Which brings me to this new Nested release. J. from Nested is also the sole member behind Wrath Of The Weak. On the eponymous 2014 release (that I put on the number 1 spot for 'Best of 2014') Nested was not so much a continuation of the sound of WOTW, as a kind of re-imaging of what that project was about. Pulsing, throbbing, static and blissed-out drones, a more skeletal version of the monotonous black metal whirlwind WOTW, which was almost ambient on its final couple of releases. However, the line between those two acts is starting to get a little more blurred now, because '3' has quite a bit in common with WOTW's 2010 album 'Solace'. It is a lot more abrasive than the first one, that's for sure. It offsets that abrasiveness in a brilliant way by combining it with blurred and blissed-out drones. It is also much less rhythmic than the first one, which at times even veered almost towards post-punk atmospheres. Here, only the track 'For all was made redundant' has a deep, throbbing pulse-like beat buried in the layers of (guitar)drones and static.
Both Nested as well as Wrath Of The Weak have this unique ability to sound like nothing else. WOTW did it for black metal and Nested does it for drone. What strikes me is that J. remains so modest about it. He is an exceptional songwriter that has the ability to redefine genres and drag them out of stagnation.
In the seemingly endless stream of drone and ambient releases it can be very hard to stand out. Most of it is pretty decent, some of it is even pretty damn good, but it takes something special to truly stand out of the crowd. And even though I can't quite put my finger on it why Nested is so spectacular for me I can see this easily entering my top 3 for 2016. Where J. will most likely compete with himself because even though I haven't reviewed it yet, the new Wrath Of The Weak is nothing short of amazing too...
Bjorn