Description

Digibook with 56 page booklet

Verity is the 2017 album from the Ukrainian giants of pagan black metal, Nokturnal Mortum. Released eight years after The Voice of Steel and thanks to a gain in popularity in Western countries. However, patience is the key word of this album. It is true just as well for the band, its meticulousness and perfectionism, as for the one who listens carefully. All I can tell you is Verity is a long journey and each song that composes it is one in its own right. Verity starts the way it intends to go on, with a spectacular opening. “I’ll Meet You in Ancient Darkness” is a quiet immersion that turns into a wild ramp-up to a constant and implacable strength on “Molfa”. The way the song evolves to an enthralling and liberating chorus makes me want to live it. I want to see it live, wherever it’ll be. The work of Nokturnal Mortum is rich and impressive but surely not grandiloquent. What keeps them apart from this is the real mastery and sincerity in what they do. This is what makes talented compositors to me, and such words remind me of the man behind the Belarusian symphonic folk project Dzivia, Artur Matveenko. I’m pleased to find these “stumbles” again, which are rather enlightened with power and rhythm. “Snow of the Snowstorm” is a significant example of this and the perfect symbiosis between fortifying traditional instruments and pure heavy riffs. So most of the songs follows the formula of catchy Ukrainian folk and melodic black metal. Couple that with Varggoth’s strong and varied vocal performance as well as some of the best atmospheric keyboard you’ll hear this side of the Danube, there isn’t really much to complain about it here.

Track list:
1. I’ll Meet You In Ancient Darkness
2. Molfa
3. With Chort In My Bosom
4. Spruce Elder
5. Song Of The Snowstorm
6. Wolfish Berries
7. In The Boat With Fools
8. Wild Weregild
9. Lira
10. Black Honey
11. Night Of The Gods
12. Where Do The Wreaths Float Down The River