Nightbringer: Hierophany of the Open Grave

Dark, heavy and dissonant, Hierophany of the Open Grave by American blackmetallers Nightbringer combines the frantic dissonant tremolo riffage of raw black metal with the heavier feel of doom metal – although generally, this albums seems to me to be mostly on the heavy side.

Thus the music constantly moves from heavy doom-ladden passages to blastbeat-and-tremolo ones, and this in itself can make for a pretty intense musical experience, but that is not enough for Nightbringer. In a somewhat avant-garde fashion, they make good use of multiple (at least two) guitar tracks such that the two main guitars rarely play exactly the same pattern. For example, while one guitar is engaged in a simple tremolo pattern, the other plays oddly melodic droming notes while the drums blast away. Actually, the band often combine tremolo riffing wit heavy drumming, or droning riffage with blastbeating, and sometimes everything at the same time. As you can imagine, this use of guitars generate a very intense feel when you listen to the album, which is only amplified by the use of dissonant chords and harmonies and, at times, multiply overlaid snarled and growled vocals.

Unlike much other post 90s black metal where repetition of a few figures, so as to invoke a sort of trance in the listener, is a central element, Nightbringer manage to bring more dynamism and variation into their music, and they also make use of instrumentation beyond the traitional bass-guitars-drums line up every now and then, such as the bizarrely melodic piano pattern towards the end of 'The Gnosis of Inhumation', the chruch organ in the beginning of 'The Angel of Smokeless Fire' and the epic male choirs in 'Lucifer Tristmegesus' and the acoustic intros that appear in some of the tracks – consequently, there is also a sort of dark and twisted epicness to some of the music on this album. Despite the dynamism of the individual tunes, the album tends to become monotone overall, which means that the potential for a sense of trance is still there.

Hierophany of the Open Grave is an intense musical experience and probably not suited for the black metal noob, but if you are and experienced listener of black metal or similar dark music and you are looking for a challenging and somewhat unpleasant, yet oddly melodic, listen, then you should check out this release by Nightbringer.

Track Listing:
1. Rite of the Slaying Tongue
2. Eater of the Black Lead
3. Psychagogoi
4. Lucifer Trismegistus
5. The Gnosis of Inhumation
6. The Angel of Smokeless Fire
7. Dreaming Above the Sepulcher
8. Via Tortuosa
9. Old Night

Added: November 12th 2011
Reviewer: Kim Jensen
Score:
Related Link: Band MySpace Page
Hits: 3422
Language: english

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