This struck as being strange and an unexpected form of darkness than the straightforward black metal I had anticipated and it pretty much cast its spell over me on the very first listen. Nebiros are a Polish band with the members residing in Berlin. After four demos and an album they took a break over a couple of years before reforming with new members and getting proactive again. The result of this is new album VII and the significance of this title (whichever way you look at it 6th recorded work) is no doubt of some arcane esoteric nature as is the general vibe and atmosphere exuding from their music.
An eerie keyboard intro with symphonic and choral embellishments sets things up for a series of numbers named in their Polish tongue. Translations come up with titles such as ‘Order Of The Black,’ ‘Mother Whore,’ ‘The Old Man’ and ‘Grim Shadow’ and vocals courtesy of Blachur tell these tales with ghastly rasping effect behind them. Sinister keyboards and glistening gothic textured guitars weave around things and the pace is restrained at first with everything moving at a mid-paced leaden stomp. Bristling into action on Boga Cialo’ the aforementioned Whore Mother, things steam off and furrow away. There’s some smart drumming rolling away and stop, starting with precision but it’s not all furious with things taking some well-placed melodic breaks and allowing the music to breathe between bursts of energy. Weird skewed rhythmic thrusts and echoing vocals invade on the next one ‘Galaxis’ and things clearly take an eccentric and avant-garde turn. The fact the vocals are in Polish make it all the more alien and you can’t help but wonder just what sort of devilish spell the band are narratively casting here. I have to admit with this lot I would like a bit of further understanding of their art the feel of darkness and Satanism spreads out through these songs but there are plenty of things going on musically as it is to keep your attention.
Vocally and due to the ever changing nature of the music I am reminded a bit of bands such as Root with some of the strangeness of Mortuary Drape too but this is pretty damn original. There are times you think you have it sussed such as on the rot n’ rolling ‘Jabol’ which hints of latter era Satyricon but then they go and pop a cork out of a bottle (literally) and rampage into the next number dropping the music out for strange keyboard swirls amidst the mayhem. One thing I can be clear on (and I do really think I had my task cut out choosing this to review) is that the musicianship here is excellent. The band are really tight and create a massive wall of sound at full strength yet manage to have everything nice and clear in the mix.
Although the album works as a united front and obviously clearly the work of one group no two songs are particularly alike here making it all the more intriguing. I know it sounds like a cop-out but the best way of formulating an opinion of this lot is to stop reading reviews and go listen to them yourself. Good stuff even if not the easiest to explain just where they are coming from.
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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