Rating: 4.8

Country: Sweden

Release Date: 2007

Record Label: Drakkar

Track list:
1.   Crush the Masses   03:54   
2.   Filling the Chambers   03:40   
3.   Dawn of the New Era   04:02   
4.   The Mark of Death   05:38   
5.   Vindar Fran Helvetet   02:53   
6.   Atra Mors   03:56   
7.   Rising Horns   03:48   
8.   Glorious Destruction   03:53   
9.   Lamb (Von cover)   01:23   
10.   Whither[sic] and Die   04:33  

Band Website: Nidsang

Nidsang - The Mark of Death

Amducious - guitar/vocals
Korpr - drums
Blodshird - bass/guitar

In the compositions of Nidsang are traces of the Italian improv ensemble Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. Just kidding, they play pretty grating black metal that sounds like Darkthrone's Under a Funeral Moon and A Blaze in the Northern Sky. To be fair, I hear a hint of Vonnish crust, the muscular thrash breaks are pretty Bathoryesque, and during their more melodic moments they channel a bit of early Rotting Christ, but the fact these elements are so easy to discern can be attributed to the fact Nidsang rarely stand on their own two feet.

You see, when a band loves another band very much, it's normal for that band to put the other band's riff in its album. But sometimes that band may love more than one other band, and may decide to fill its album with multiple bands' riffs. The puritan villagers will, of course, sneer at the band behind its back: "I say, Thaddeus, I regard that band as a most bawdy, unwholesome sort."; "Indeed, Nigel, 'twould be safer to dine on carrion than to make bedfellows with that trollopsome wench!" The two men would then adjust their top hats and titter mischievously over their crumpets. Despite this, the band will remain steadfast in its feelings, which is good for them and all, but what of the listeners? The title track is the first song in which we hear any unique ideas beyond up-down tremolo Darkthrone-aping, with some surprisingly groovy bending, while "Atra Mors" features uncharacteristically grandiose phrasing and leads, but instances such as these tend to end as soon as you manage to get into them. Don't get me wrong, this kind of everyday black metal can be done right with some spine in the songwriting, but there are more textureless, aimless transitions on this album than instances of the combination of words "and therefore" in a community college essay.

On the other hand, Nidsang managed to satiate my Von fetish with a cover of the said band's "Lamb." Unfortunately, Von covers always seem rather superfluous; I mean, how significant or interesting can you make one without changing the song completely? Von were just one of those bands I'd rather hear play their own material than some Swedish guys who really like them. Not to set too negative of a tone; a Von cover's a Von cover, which means it destroys half the shit out there by default. Although there aren't too many stylistic lines to draw between the aforementioned American minimalists and norskaryskblakkmetal like this, the two do share one prevailing feature that happens to be Nidsang's best asset: intense delivery. While the music always seems to sway about ambivalently in vain search of an identity, the conviction behind the thrash breaks and in-the-red vocals pushing the loping beast forward almost sells it at times.

If only all album art was this fitting; with The Mark of Death, a monochromatic tangle of barbed wire is exactly what you get. Much like after having seen a Tarantino movie, consider me entertained but underwhelmed -- entertained at a base level by the obvious love the artists have for what they do and the gratuitous violence of it all, but ultimately underwhelmed by the baseless arrogance with which they string together what is essentially a collage of their influences. If you like your metal hateful and Scandinavian, you may want to keep a cautious eye on Nidsang, but they have some growing to do.

April 3rd, 2008