Reviews for Nokturnal Mortum - Lunar Poetry (demo):
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From The End Records Originally released in 1996 in MC format, the cult debut release by Nokturnal Mortum is finally re-issued on CD! Highly requested and anticipated by fans of black metal the album will finally see the darkness mid 2001. The release will also include the 11-minute opus "The Return Of The Vampire Lord" plus an impressive cover of Celtic Frost's "Sorrows Of The Moon". "Lunar Poetry" is steeped in moonlight mystery and timeless Slavonic ritualism. This is Black Metal with highly expressive folk sorrowful melodies. It delivers soaring guitars and apocalyptic keyboard passages. It offers a wide variance in vocals - from screams, to whispers and narration - and it breathes the air of originality that Nokturnal Mortum is now very (in)famous for. And yes, "Lunar Poetry" was way ahead of its time and even today it sounds fresh and inspiring. In fact, the result is so startling it is hard to imagine that this is only Nokturnal Mortum's very first journey into the dark, the ancient and the extreme... Review by: shcherba Gnosis The original version of 'Lunar Poetry' was released as an MC in 1996, and has obtained a legendary status, as it mixed pagan symphonic black metal with an influence of many old school bands, especially Celtic Frost as can be seen by the 'Sorrows of the Moon' cover. In 1996 the band recorded 'Goat Horns' and between it and the next album, the EP 'Return Of The Vampire Lord' was recorded, of which the 11 minute title track is included on this release as a bonus. The album begins with the insanely haunting 'Tears of Paganism'. It reminds of something that was done by Aghast, deep moaning and some distant bells turning into slow chanting, very powerful and very ethereal, until the music bursts into the black metal assault of 'Lunar Poetry'. The track, as the whole album, is filled with mystery and myth, fueled by ancient Slavonic folk melodies, which add sorrow to the aggression in the music. The album has lower sound quality than any of their other releases, but this is passed very quickly, and its surprising how fresh and inspiring it feels being so old. The most surprising part is the high definition of each instrument, deep synths rumble back and forth, but most importantly there is a very high amount of guitar. The guitars are defined and strong, going from very melodic leads to sometimes frantic solo's, something that is seldom found in symphonic black metal. Varggoth's voice is not quite as raspy, being softened amongst the chaotic maelstrom of sound, but once in a while his insane rantings fly forward with a vengeance. Most people know how much I enjoy early symphonic black metal releases, not being overdone in anyway, and being filled with both majesty and obscurity. This album is certainly cult, and reminds me of other greats such as Gehenna's 'First Spell', Emperor's 'In the Nightside Eclipse' and Covenant's 'In Times Before the Light. But while those albums sounded somehow simple at their time, Nokturnal Mortum had an amazing amount of intensity and painstaking complexity all ready. 'Perun's Celestial Silver' is a track that begins with a melody that brings tears to any slavonic soul, being a mournful melody that reminds of the ancient past, and that is so well recreated on 'NeChrist'. Most important here is the quality of the guitar work, that somehow hid itself on NeChrist. 'Carpathian Mysteries' once again begins with a slow kooky melody, something that Nokturnal Mortum are (in)famous for. The track then moves quickly into a steady pace of calculated drums and waning synths, as well as some very good guitar work. There is a lot of breaking down, instruments going off on their own, but it all soon comes together like a whirlwind. There is also use of more vocal styles on this demo. Screams, whispers and also some deep Ulver like chants, these are also draped in mysticism. '...And Winter Becomes' starts with a strong guitar and synth interplay as well as very strong melodies. The melodies on this as on all Nokturnal Mortum are just priceless, changing often and always maintaining intensity and interest. 'Ancient Nation' is the strongest of these old tracks, beginning with some more folk oriented melodies, and slow kettle drums and cymbals. The guitar work then erupts very strongly, showing the Celtic Frost influence, as Varggoth screams his mystical hatred and the synths play a siren's tune. 'The Grief of Oriana' is an instrumental track as such, using some ancient instruments and a bit of futuristic synthesis, along to a slow kettle drum marching sound. 'Sorrows of the Moon' is a very powerful 'Celtic Frost' tribute, but I am more impressed with the albums outro. It begins as a guitar driven little dirge with screaming and some unexpected intensity, before the vocal interplay brings it all to a slow soothing end. The track then dwindles down into a proper keyboard outro, and so we come to 'Return of the Vampire Lord'. For some reason I thought this was a totally new track, that's how fresh it sounds. It begins with a coming storm, and sounds that you would expect in any decent vampire movie. Some wolves howl, bats do squeak and a crypt is opened, the band then starts at a very enjoyable melody that is used throughout the whole 11 minute track. For some reason this never becomes tedious, as Varggoth screams some ancient tale, and the guitars work along to the sorrowful tale. You can instantly tell that this is of a different release, as the whole mix is different, with every instrument somehow being perfectly represented, and the drums especially having a very strong sound. And so the track moves along through many deferent sections, and proves that Nokturnal Mortum are a very tight and talented outfit, managing to sustain intensity and interest for a such a long time, something that only few bands like Opeth succeed in. This track then ends in a witch cackling away and you're left with a surprisingly numb feeling. I have replayed this album about 4-5 times in one day since I have got it, being nearly an hour long it just manages to immerse and involve more than any current releases that I have heard. I hail The End for bringing this album out for the legion of Nokturnal Mortum fans. Hail Varggoth, hail Pierun, hail Nokturnal Mortum! From The End Records Mysterio Review by: shcherba LARM - The Fourth Reich Of Reviews This is the last truly underground release of Ukraine’s own black metal superstars Nokturnal Mortum. It is less sophisticated than "Goat Horns", but should still hold the interest of those who found "Goat Horns" worthwhile. Nokturnal Mortum play melodic black metal drenched in synths, with obvious respect to older metal in the guitar riffs (and so it comes as no surprise that they cover "Sorrows of the Moon" on this album). This isn’t my style of metal and aesthetically it is almost disturbingly similar to "the new-wave of Norwegian black metal" a.k.a. "oppressed-schoolkids-pretending-to-be-evil-while-playing- pop-music-with-distortion". Yet, there are things I find worthwhile in this band. They are inspired and express their pagan ideology through this music without resorting to anything blatantly obvious, corrupted or false, even if they have a tendency to choose the easy way. "Lunar Poetry" is a romantic, nocturnal synthesis of rock, metal, classical and folk music. The instruments are balanced in the production, with a slight emphasis on synths and drums. Vocals echo behind a slight distance that adds an amount of authority and power to the pagan battle-screams. There is something juvenile and defective in each of the songs, but most of them are carried out well enough to maintain integrity and give this band a position above most competitors in it’s genre. And I am actually glad that the occasional failing can here be attributed to lack of experience, as that is remediable, whereas taint of commerciality rarely is. Nokturnal Mortum are honest and that is a trait that I appreciate. My favorite tracks on this album like "Lunar Poetry", "Perun’s Celestial Silver" and "Ancient Nation", manage to convey the epic longing for freedom, darkness, power and the heroic times, that is the essence of, not only black metal music, also it’s characteristic ideology, thought patterns and psychological profile. © 1999 Devamitra Review by: shcherba The first song I heard from Nokturnal Mortum's "Lunar Poetry" was the cover of Celtic Frost's "Sorrows Of The Moon." At first I thought the band was precociously jumping from minor underground status to the state at which it is appropriate to cover great songs by great bands, but after I heard the demo in its entirety, I realized that the song functions better as a Nokturnal Mortum statement than it does as a stand-alone cover. The choice to place the song in the middle of the album (well, not really the middle, but at least before the outro) was a good one, as it did not interrupt the flow of musical progression. Although "Lunar Poetry" is sophisticated in its approach to Emperoresque keyboard-based black metal, it lacks distinction. The songs are very similar, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, since they are all good. It seems as if "Lunar Poetry" was meant to be more like a symphony than an album of separate, distinguishable songs. Nokturnal Mortum is also the only Ukrainian black metal band of which I am aware. Like so many other Eastern European metal bands are doing today, Nokturnal Mortum utilizes traditional Ukrainian music to underscore the black metal soundtrack that has been presented to us with "Lunar Poetry." If you have the time/patience for such a statement, this demo is highly recommended. Fortunately, it was rereleased as an album, as something this good deserves to be more than just a "demo." Favorite songs are "Carpathian Mysteries" and "Autodafe/Barbarian Dreams." Review by: MikhailNKonstantinov Defenetly the best Nokturnal Mortum album. I'm affraid to say that music is melodic, because in many cases it means softnes. Music is melodic, but still very agressive sound (that many slavic bands don't have). Good (very good) folk/balck/pagan metal. 10/10 Review by: BlackDATA The best Nokturnal M album and the best of all pagan Bm albums ever! Review by: Vargulf		Use the textarea below to write your review of this album. 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