Nhor - Within the Darkness between the Starlight
Prophecy
Atmospheric/Doom/Black Metal
8 songs (57'57'')
Release year: 2013
Nhor, Prophecy
Reviewed by Jared

Two full length albums prior to Nhor’s latest offering, Within the Darkness between the Starlight, have gone pretty much virtually unknown in metal. This one man project from Herefordshire, Midlands (UK) can be a bit difficult to decipher with a metal genre. Much of the influence, as it has been with previous releases, can be best described as a black and doom metal experience accompanied by atmospheric and neoclassical sounding elements. There is little knowledge about the man behind the music, but he has delivered an emotional roller coaster of metal with his newest contribution.

The album seems to take a lot of interest in astrology but also seems to be draped in a lot of mystery. It’s a bit of fresh air when a black metal band decides to stray away from the traditional satanic themes that most associate with. It’s better to see bands get a bit more creative than falling in line with the genre’s most obvious of clichés. The album starts with a very somber piano opening that dips deep into a melancholic attitude. The piano is humble and lax to the ear, but not after the main title track boasts with its blast beating drums, and a very emotionally driven black metal guitar lick. This track is ten minutes long in length, as well as many of the other tracks on this album, so taking enough time to absorb all of them is highly recommended. The song gets slower for a large portion of the song which focuses on an ambient atmosphere with cleaner guitars that sound equally as delicate as the piano.

The piano on this album is very well done, as it was one of my favorite uses of instruments on the entire album. Patient Hunter, Patient Night is a great example of this. The first five minutes of this track is purely piano along other keyboard elements to once again heighten the emotionally driven atmosphere this album likes to reveal. The song branches off into a bit more doom sounding track. The drumming is simple but the sound of the guitars and bass are nonetheless big.

The longer tracks of this album make up much of the beginning. The Fall of Orion is once again a track well over ten minutes in length. Instead of using a piano this time to open up the music to the feeling of a gloomy state, clean sounding guitars make up for much of it this time. This is probably the most doom sounding of all the tracks but still sounding very black metal due in part to the vocal performance. The following track, An Awakening Earth, is a completely ambient experience that lasts a little over three minutes. Like many tracks it sounds like it has hit another depressive moment, but this time around it feels way darker than I expected it to be.

Of the eight tracks that make up this album there are a total of three that are purely instrumental. Excluding the last track Alnilam and the fifth track An Awakening Earth, which are solely piano and ambient pieces, Rohmet Etarnu is the one to take notice to. It may be a slower more repetitive track to embrace, but the piano and other instruments combined in this one track sounded great and worthy of being strangely enough, a very comforting listen.

Nhor may be difficult to classify in terms of sound, but it’s these types of bands that are the most enthralling. This band indeed is very black metal sounding, but taking from influences such as doom and classical piano and adding it to the mix, creates a very unique sound for this type of music. Atmospheric black metal fans should be very well suited for this as well. This album derives from a lot of emotion and beauty, but also takes into account a black metal sound that many will come to enjoy due to its rather uncommon sound.

Killing Songs :
Within the Darkness between the Starlight, Patient Hunter Patient Night, The Fall of Orion, Rohmet Etarnu
Jared quoted 80 / 100
Other albums by Nhor that we have reviewed:
Nhor - Momenta Quintae Essentiae reviewed by Alex and quoted 60 / 100
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