Nyctophobic - Blast from the Past review artwork

Rating: 8.0

Country: Germany

Release Date: 2007

Track list:
1. Narrowed Minds Bleeding
2. Sterility
3. Neglect Of The Loss
4. Earthrise
5. Rapid Eye Movement
6. The Pain Of A Conquered Being
7. Denial
8. The Remaining Silence
9. Inner Manipulation
10. Deceiver
11. The Kill
12. Mindrape
13. Negligenced Respect
14. Responsibilites
15. My Souls Lament
16. Suffer Life
17. The After Life Experience
18. Far Beyond Reality
19. Opening Of A Dark Chapter (Intro)
20. Seeds Of Morbidity
21. Bloodfeast
22. The After Life Experience
23. Negligenced Respect
24. My Souls Lament
25. Far Beyond Reality
26. The After Life Experience
27. Sterility

Band Website: Nyctophobic

Nyctophobic - Blast from the Past

Nyctophobic are a prolific Death/Grind band from Germany , with a lot of splits and live albums. However, of their entire back catalogue, I've only managed to acquire Insects, their much-maligned, Hardcore influenced full-length CD, the vokills in particular always berated by everyone. In fact, I actually purchased the album for just two Euros from Disgorgement of Squash Bodies Records, who described it as “Totally weak shit!!” This collection is the first release since that record, circumventin' it entirely in order to gather tunes from their various 7” splits and EPs. I quite liked Insects, but this compilation of course blows it to the most insignificant of smithereens.

So what's it like? Surely you can guess what a Grind album sounds like by now. When I pressed play, serrated guitar-scythes carved catchy riffs into my beamin' mug, whilst my cranium was tightly compressed by some rather energetic drum bashment, the final strands of my tymphanic membrane snapped off by raucous vokill vitriol. It opens with their rare split with US Gore Metal steeds, Exhumed, the tracks consistin' of instantly noddable groovy fluidity and plenty of high-speed crushment, accompanied by vociferous dual vokill terror, which involves enormous, sweaty growls and agonized, glottal yelps tradin' off lots ‘n' lots o' catchy verses with one another. The next herefeatured material previously released ‘pon a 7” is taken from their split with Entrails Massacre, which sees a continuation of that described above, only with the introduction of a few nice ‘n' slobbery FX to the vokill track and hotter, more prominent bass-sizzle. Although the bony outline o' this style juts into the rest of the compilation, their songwriting and delivery varies enough to enable you to distinguish ‘tween the different releases; some place heavier emphasis on excessive, adrenaline-infused tempos, many are drippin' with glottal vokill seepages, while others are like primitive head cudgels! And then of course there's the fluctuation in sound quality, which is something I always enjoy sailin' across when listenin' to a best-of such as this, what with my weary ears bein' bashed back ‘n' forth from hackin' clarity to a rickety ol' ramshackle shed-sound.

Over the course o' Blast from the Past, the inspirations remain deeply seated within the old skool Grind phase of the Earache timeline, with many chopped-off ‘n' pilfered chunks o' Unseen Terror and Terrorizer and plenty of bits snaffled off o' first two Napalm Death records, whilst elsewhere there are large, carved-out gobbets o' vintage Agathocles and a few chewed-up hairy-globs o' Extreme Noise Terror.

Although it puffs the dust off of a lot of their lost ‘n' forgotten works, this isn't one of those complete discography collections, it assembles the tracks from five musty ol' EPs rather than pilin' every last crossed-out note ever recorded by the band into one bloated to burstin' release. I usually enjoy spendin' a good hour wallowin' in the works of a single Grind band, but often end up all Grinded out in a disheveled, run-down heap by the end, so the mere twenty seven tracks on this album left me feelin' as fresh as a daisy! A very pleasant best-of.

December 21st, 2007