It’s really impossible to tell in words the feeling one gets while listening to Núll “Entity” for its big load of despair, grief, pain and solitude. We all know that those are common feaures in modern Black Metal acts, but not at this level. For the record, it’s an intense overflow of all the above and much more. “Entity” is an album that takes to the fan up to the limit overwhelming and overflowing all the senses in a way only Black Metal can do. Núll found a way of expressing in terms of music everything humankind feel, but repress for one reason or another. Our society doesn’t take well misery and pain in the individual sense. I mean we are obliged to be always happy and joyful and radiant. Total BS! And a big lie above other things. This sad and pathetic and lonely planet is in no way the place for happiness. Núll told it via “Entity.” As simple as that.
My child of the night knows that I always say that music is to bring up emotions. Furthermore, it’s totally useless when it represents only one kind of emotion. That is, the aforementioned false happiness. The musical structures built in “Entity” were intentionally brought up to life in order not to celebrate life the way laymen know it. Life in “Entity” is much more complex and dense as the strumming interwaven by some distortion and eerie and sad vocals show in their evolution throught the album. The impression it gets is that the voice is mumbling most of the time to be suddenly and harshly stopped by a ghastly echo or scream. Guitars do the same as they come gently to then burst into some desperate solo. In fact, the guitars are the less Metal possible here. They follow a post-rock pattern and try to hide themselves just to burst in some exact moment. Opening track “None” shows this clearly. It is possible to hear the guitars, but they are hidden in layers and layers of distortion and effects or the cymbals. There are moments that they make an appearance and shine as bright as the light. Rather amazing the way Núll built that up. I must add that the out-of-this-world chorus in “Reduced Beyond the Point of Renewal” emotions the fan. The mumbling in it works in a way that it is impossible not to. I was also impressed by the sense of nothingness that Núll pass – by the way, núll means nothing in icelandic. The art cover reinforces this feeling as well.
For the better and for the worst “Entity” is a monolithic album due to the pattern chosen that doesn’t change until the end. Well, to be frank, what for?
Núll “Entity” will be released on August 28th via Ván Records.
Track Listing:
- None
- Reduced Beyond the Point of Renewal
- Grasping the Outer Hull of the Tangible
- (em)Pathetic
- Conjoin the Vacuous
- An Idiosyncratic Mirage
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