Nad
Ancient Ruins Of A Dead Era ()
Wydane przez Self-financedRok wydania Kraj ItalyNapisał Wouter3
In a few short years Italy has become a hotbed for extreme metal with acts such as Fleshgod Apocalypse and Hour Of Penance leading the hordes. Nad also hails from Italy, but aside from geographic similarities, this act still has a far way to go until they are able measure themselves with the established masters. “Ancient Ruins Of A Dead Era” has all markings of an illconceived and too prematurely released demo recording. The tracks don’t flow too well, the ambient segments only serve to mask the lack of instrumental skill and the vocals are painful at best. It feels as if these songs haven’t gestated long enough. These cuts are mere stabs at ideas but nothing is fully fleshed out or conceptualized into a coherent whole. Supposedly Nad attempt to combine multi-ethnic ambient with more straightforward black metal set against a lyrical concept based around fantasy literature. Unsurprisingly, neither the ambient nor the lyrical concept translates well enough to warrant any attention. The ambient constitutes mostly of the fading in and out of one or two keyboard notes, combined with nature sounds such as blowing wind. Mortiis did this ambient thing over a decade ago with the same limited resources and ended up writing actual good music. The production is typical for a demo recording and despite the fact that this band has released two EPs and a full lenght previously, it is not anything to write home about. The bass guitar is too upfront in the mix, drowing out the thin guitar riffs. The drum production is okay, although some additional cleaning up wouldn’t hurt. The kickdrums at least sound natural and not like a typewriter. The production notes barely make lingual sense and it is clear that Nad don’t fully master the English language. Refer to song titles as ‘As Fighting Marfs are Deleted by the Frozen Path’. Why they choose to operate in English, a tongue they barely master well enough to communicate in, instead of their native Italian is anybody’s guess.
