Band:	Nihill
Album:	Krach
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	July 2007

01. Empirical
02. Mundus Subterreanus
03. Gnosis Pt. I
04. Dreams Upon The Scaffold
05. Gnosis Pt. II
06. Gnosis Pt. III

Nihill is an odd beast. The Dutch ensemble strives to remain as elusive as possible and it has to be said that, in today's day and age where virtually every personal detail is known through faceb00kz and twitt3r, they've done well. Only known details: Nihill is a Dutch band with the intention to release a trilogy. Krach is chapter one.

A quick word of warning - I'm reviewing the digipack CD version. Apparently the tracklist, and with that the dynamics, is different on the vinyl edition.

Nihill delivers modern Black metal: technically skilled Black metal invoking feelings of paranoia, schizophrenia and dissociation rather than The Lord Satan. Frontrunners of this 'new wave' are, among others, Deathspell Omega and Blut Aus Nord, and especially the latter's eerily textured quicksilver riffs and general vibe (The Work Which Transforms God album) are also present on Krach. But we're not sticking to one genre only, though. Krach is also filled to the brim with brooding Sunn O)))-esque dark drones and deep-sounding, slow, primal percussion. Oh boy. And of course high-density sonic violence deserves appropriate vocals and whoever's the vocalist gives it his all. He screeches and whispers, roars and hoarsely moans - I think it's safe to assume he prefers Attila Csihar over Maniac and Dead as vocalist of Mayhem.

And now we're getting to my main point of criticism. Krach does a good job at mixing the thoughts of groundbreaking and unique acts and manages to sound quite fresh while doing so, but they rarely reach the high level of quality and song writing of the bands mentioned. Krach's goals are perhaps a little too ambitious. Almost every section sounds good and enjoyable, but it lacks cohesion and therefore becomes forgettable. It doesn't grab you by the balls as much as it should. A real shame, because there certainly are good things going on here. Enough to get my hopes up for chapter two, Grond.