Nihilanth – Graceless Planet Review

Finally a band that agrees with me about this sad and lonely and pathetic little planet. Nihilanth are releasing this album “Graceless Planet” whose name agrees with me. Well, I guess. Not exactly, but this is a good start. Sad and pathetic may be graceless, don’t you agree? As the lyrics of “Inversion of Values” says, the problem isn’t the planet, but who inhabits it. The tiny little humans who do the worst with thier poor judgement.

Metal fauna and diversity is growing muchg more than one can see. No one can say I’m wrong when I say that Extreme Metal is the avant garde of Metal music just because it is. “Graceless Planet” is a minimalist album where Nihilanth opted for the simple. The music isn’t exactly raw, on the other hand, isn’t exaclty polished. The songs are minimal, but not raw as Nihilanth deliver their straight ahead Metal music with no show offs or gliter and things. Of course, as nobody is made of iron – hum, a Metal band is always made of iron. Nah, nah, steel is the word. – there are some precious instrumental moments as the very well named “The Cairn” where the band exercises their polishness and talent with an instrumental song that reminds a little of Black Sabbath’s. As a matter of fact Black Sabbath are minimalist as well. The more simple the better. Maybe, just maybe “The Entity” is the track that best represents “Graceless Planet” and Nihilanth with its non-stop powerhouse and relentless approach using the simple, though the effective in terms of heavy music.

When I say minimalist I don’t mean bad or weak. I just mean that the band chose a straight way of displaying its music. That’s what Nihilanth do here with “Graceless Planet.” The planet may be graceless, but the music here has its grace after all. The fan feels what it was to come by the way opening track “Le Désosseur De Cadavres” does it way without asking for permission. By the way, it’s nice to listen some Metal music in French and notice that it’s almost impossible to understand the lyrics either way… No one understands them is for some Extreme metallers that’s the law for lyrics in Metal music. Ah, simply don’t know. But the track is amazing with its blasting guitars and awesome fast-paced drumming.

P.S.: Very interesting album cover.

Nihilanth “Graceless Planet” was released on June 11th via Great Dane Records.

Track Listing:

  1. Le Désosseur De Cadavres
  2. Endless Red Stream
  3. Inversion of Values
  4. A Promontory of Pain
  5. The Cairn
  6. Shared Minds
  7. Entity
  8. Visions of Al-Hazred

Watch “Le Désosseur De Cadavres” official lyric video here: