Nadiwrath - Nihilistic Stench
Moribund Cult
Blackened Punk
8 songs (48:46)
Release year: 2011
Moribund Cult
Reviewed by Tony

When I saw a Black’n’Roll band on the promo list I had to bite. Not often do bands excel at establishing a groove within Black Metal. Khold do it and do it well; finding their niche in the Black Metal world. If you don’t like one Khold album though, you won’t like any. Nadiwrath are one of the newer members on the less than stagnant Greek scene. For so long all we had heard was the prowess of the darkened Rotting Christ. Nadiwrath hail from Attica, Athens; the same area as Extreme Metallers Septic Flesh.

If you were thinking of another Khold or someone trying to establish the trancelike nature of Darkthrone’s big three, you are far off. Quite honestly, Nadiwrath remind me of a Blackened Thrash/Punk outfit more than their promo list description of Black’n’Roll. They do not have the depth of a Black/Thrash act such as Absu or Destroyer 666 but it does have the driving heaviness and bestial simplicity comparable to Grimfist and the like. This is an album that has a repetitive nature, which is unlike the chord layers of Darkthrone and quite obnoxious. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Nadiwrath, they are the side project of Wrath of Dodsferd. This is essentially the songwriting styling and attitude of Punk Rock with a Black Metal sound. The entire album is more or less detuned power chords arranged in various manners and structures played over quarter note snare beats with Wrath screaming his vocals over them.

I can’t say in places that they are not catchy. Nadiwrath bring a Black Metal edge to the hardnosed simplicity of Punk Rock. Darkness Has Lost Its Meaning begins with a catchy opening riff and a similar riff following. Blast beats then cascade for a fleeting moment. While the drums are incredibly rudimentary and sometimes one sided, Nadiwrath do a fine job of adding variation and rhythmic diversity when needed at the right times. This is shown well in Darkness Has Lost Its Meaning. Unfortunately, Wrath spends way too much time aimlessly shrieking over slower chords and break beats. This occurs in several songs but is almost always followed up with a solid groove portion. Two Face Shit Fuckers might be the dumbest song title I have heard in a while, and it is pretty much a similar song to the opener.

This is one of those albums that little can be said about. It is not remarkably good nor remarkably bad. Catchy, yet oft times boring. The best track is by far the lengthy (almost 10 minutes) finale Memories Are Dead. Although the clean vocals at the end are dreadful in my opinion and the riffs are cut and dry like all the other tracks, the order in which they are played, the increasingly audible walking bass line, and Wrath’s excellent harsh vocal delivery all lend to making the last track the best on Nihilistic Stench. If each track was like this or at least similar in structural meanderings this album could have been WAY better. Here Nadiwrath take the same style riffs and same chords and build them differently weaving a more affluent tapestry to close Nihilistic Stench. The band still have much to work on but can take great strides if they build from here on the positives.

Killing Songs :
Memories Are Dead
Tony quoted 68 / 100
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