Like a compelling painting which draws eyes into vivid adventures and sparks thoughts to conjure complimentary background stories, The Quivering Lights, the split release from Nachtreich and Spectral Lore, takes ears and imagination on an equivalent exploration. Taking inspiration from the metaphorical struggle between Dionysus and Apollo whilst also investigating spiritual decay, the six-track release is a journey, at times a fall, through the darkest emotions and coldest climates whilst expressing a beauty which simply bewitches.
It is a split which offers much more than a trio of tracks from two bands; the proposition seeing Germany’s Nachtreich and Greek ambient black metallers Spectral Lore collaborating and entwining their individual explorations in one soul searching flight of blackened neo-classical drama. Challenging at times, bewitching in other moments, the album aligns the darkest corners of the soul to an emotionally startling landscape in an experience metal, progressive, and classical fans alike can immerse within.
Hailing from Koblenz /Nürnberg, Nachtreich was an instrumental band formed by the musicians P.H. and U.K. in 2003. Fusing dark metal with haunting harmonies and classical seeded orchestration, the band drew acclaiming attention with their intrusive dark romance of sound before splitting in 2010, though the two members continue to work together in different genres. Their companion on The Quivering Lights is the one man project of Ayloss which began in 2005. Spectral Lore is also no stranger to potent praise having released a quartet of intriguing and enthralling albums in I, II, Sentinel, and III. Now the two projects have united in arguably one of their most inspiring and gripping exploits yet. Released via the creative union of Bindrune and Eihwaz Recordings, The Quivering Lights is a perpetually shifting beauty, a soundscape of emotive and provocative imagination which not only evolves from moment to moment and track to track, but from each individual listen to listen.
Nachtreich begin the creative theatre with Lights, an instant seduction of piano and strings which whilst soaked in melancholic seduction also express radiant charm and soulful elegance. The instrumental piece is sheer mesmerism and equally adept at provoking thoughts as well as transfixing them with its potent shadowed expression and haunting touch. Climbing in weight and emotional intensity as raw air washing over the inventive poetry of sound, the track eventually simmers down again and drifts away to allow Spectral Lore’s Quivering to step forward, also on a piano sculpted embrace. Similarly there is a melodic beauty caressing ears but also an underlying coldness which shares a starker scenery further into its length; a chill become subsequently frostier and harsher as vocal squalls and doom laden terrains loom on ears and emotions. The track continually ebbs and flows with its imposing climate, exploring quieter darker corners as well as uncaging squalls of intensity.
Greyness and Ghost Lights from Nachtreich come next. The first ‘sings’ like a lone soul in a mournful field of reflections and doubts with a viola seducing for comfort. Its successor retains the grace and melodic classiness of the band’s other pair of tracks but takes it into a more sinister and predatory climate, epitomised by the low vocal growls which rub with torment against the evocative narrative of the keys. Both tracks are captivating and emotionally inciting, gloriously haunting and impressive shadows from the imagination.
Spectral Lore bring the album to a close with firstly the eleven minute of Vanishing, which opens with its own intriguing web of guitar imagination within an enticing yet slightly tempestuous calm. It is an atmosphere which is increasing in turbulence all the time, eventfully twisting into a broader and more hostile canvas of vocal sorrow and atmospheric causticity sculpted by heavy rhythms and corrosive riffs. There is a veining of sonic adventure and light though which pierces the revolving tortuous landscape of the song and adds stronger descriptive ambience.
Final track Reflection is musically as its name suggests, a sombre and thoughtful self-investigation brought by a sultry dance of fingers on guitar strings. It leaves the listener engrossed and equally as involved in their own thoughts as much as those proposed by the album. Making an immersive and dramatic proposition, the track brings the impressive release to a similarly potent close.
The Quivering Lights is something different from the usual few tracks from one artist and a few from another styled split release. It is a stunning travelogue of emotion and sound from bands combining and merging their individual investigations in one fluid and seriously rewarding journey. This is one album all black, ambient, neo-classical, and progressive metal fans should investigate.
The Quivering Lights is available now digitally @ http://nachtreich.bandcamp.com/ and on limited edition 12”vinyl @ http://eihwazrecordings.com/distro/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=1534
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nachtreich-Official/134636053320790
https://www.facebook.com/spectral.lorebm
RingMaster 20/01/2015
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out in new adventure and exploratory evolution from its predecessor; how from inside the band do you feel your music and the album has moved on from the Ascension to the Throne Ov Self EP?
Tell us about the recording of Revealed in Profane Splendour; did you approach it any differently to the previous EP especially with new members involved and musically did you explore any different ideas and technics with the album compared to your other projects?
emotion embraced by an evocative synth crafted atmosphere. Hydra adds his croon to the poetic landscape next and is almost immediately joined by the rich throated narrative of Moon. As the music is ever evolving across songs, the band presents each narrative in a web of primarily English and Italian presentation, both languages interlocking seamlessly. Bulging rhythms push the walls of the track outwards as a great vocal mix almost toys with the listener whilst the guitar of Lord Of Destruction sculpts its own gripping adventure into the engrossing soundscape. A spellbinding song which just gets better the further into its virulent thirteen minutes you go, it sets a fine plateau for the album which the classical beauty of Il lamento della ninfa cannot match but certainly adds a fresh vein of masterful exploration to the release.
Mark McDonald and sonic intrigue from the guitar of George Masouras backed by that of Angastiniotis as his vocals spill further malevolence into the mix. Elements of the track, as across the album, bring thoughts of bands like Dark Tranquillity and The Pete Flesh Deathtrip but only as spice to something distinct to Stormcast, something again shown by New World Order. The track backs up the might of the first two songs with consummate and uncompromising ease. Keys and guitar offer an immediate inviting drama, before passing the fire to a torrent of niggling riffs and intensive swipes from drummer Andrew Laghos, both courted by a prowling and magnetic bassline from Andreas Spyrou and the return of the roaring horns. Whereas the previous track was a maelstrom of dark emotions and riveting enterprise, keys and guitars weaving radiant melodic colour across a brutal rhythmic and riff painted canvas, the third track strides a brighter terrain of still imposing incitement and intensity. Hooks and grooves light up its landscape with enthralling imagination and expressive hues, whilst the bass of Spyrou makes for a carnivorous accomplice to the raw throated narrative of Angastiniotis.
an even greater variety of spices are at work on the imagination alongside an inventiveness which manages to assault, stalk, and seduce with sublime efficiency and temptation, the track’s scenic passage of atmospheric resonance and melodic caressing within a rhythmic enslavement quite delicious. Its fluid cold causticity and enthralling beauty makes way for the darker and harsher Circle of Vortices, a scathing and consuming piece of music inflamed by the malevolent tones of Myers. Again though there is radiance to its persuasion and invention, its soundscape harsh but haunting, cold rather than bitter. The track also slips into bewitching melodic scenery, its calm stroking of the senses a hopeful snatch of light before the song again savages emotions.
vocals wail whilst riffs and rhythms surge with tsunami like belligerence and merciless relentlessness. Within its extensive soundscape though, the track ebbs and flows with rhythmic bait and sonic expression, ensuring ears and imagination can never settle in one raw embrace. Emotively brutal and inhospitable, the track is as its predecessor a gripping drama of despair and ruinous invention.