Description

Black vinyl with insert

Dropping a mere year-and-a-half after 2013s solid Black Testament, Nightmarish Sleep is a brisk four-tracker that sees mainman Ornias continuing to spit out jagged, vicious black metal that sounds like the bastard child of a Gorgoroth-Setherial-Aosoth menage a trois. This has pretty much been the band’s mission statement ever since they formed way back in 1991 and even though they have largely existed on the periphery of Swedens ever-burgeoning black metal scene they have been a model of consistency over the years. What makes Nightmarish Sleep stand out from its immediate predecessors is the overall increase in aggression, with Ornias arsenal of serrated tremolo riffs and off-kilter melodies conjuring up what is easily the most belligerent Svartsyn album since 2003’s Destruction Of Man. The dense production job and strong melodic inflection of Timeless Reign (2007) and the rhythmically diverse aesthetic of Wrath Upon The Earth (2011) and the aforementioned Black Testament have been replaced by speed, vitriol and a generally raw sound. The constant tension between chaos and order heard across these four tracks is very similar to what Gorgoroth attempted on 1998’s Destroyer, and while the flow is a tad erratic and no one single riff is played long enough to induce that patented hypnotic effect the overall impression remains positive. Ornias has always been more than adept at pulling melodies out of thin air, distorting them to hell and chucking them into the songs at key moments and this is again on display here, particularly on the opening one-two salvo of Split Tongue Dialogue and Cursed Be the Rivers. This exploration of atonality and dissonance lent Black Testament its grisly charm and the same goes for this EP. The whirlwind of riffs and melodies might seem disjointed at first but Ornias always finds a way to twist them into something morbidly enjoyable. Just listen to those disembodied melodies that start appearing around the 4:45 mark on the title track – classic Svartsyn. Ornias himfself does not mince his words when it comes to talking about his music in general and Nightmarish Sleep in particular, of which he says: If you like your production to sound nice and clean you’d better stay the fuck away. This is very dark, dirty and violent. This is the result, at least in part, of a search for answers as to why I’m still here. There is a reason why I still exist, a nightmarish deep that takes you beyond the Black Testament. These are the offerings and the hymns to the Dark Gods. This IS the nightmarish sleep

Track listing:
1. Cursed Be The Rivers
2. Nightmarish Sleep
3. Outside The Flesh
4. Split Tongue Dialogue