When your promo material includes a quote about the first single from your new record, which says it “stucks [sic] in your brain straight after the first listening” and delivers a “great combination of melancholic atmosphere and brutal 90s death/black vocals,” I will make probably a ppphsssh sound and discount it. However, when I then see that that quote is attributed to Amorphis’ vocalist Tomi Joutsen, I will suck that noise back in (hssshppp, I guess) and take note. “Millenium,” the track that Joutsen is waxing lyrical about, is from To the Stars, the fourth record from German melodeath outfit, Nyktophobia. And, to be fair, I was already quite excited about this release, as the band’s last outing, 2020’s What Lasts Forever, scored itself an HM on my List that year. Swaddled in gorgeous artwork falling somewhere between the most recent Vorga, and Liminal Shroud’s LP (which I also reviewed this week), can To the Stars live up to its promise?
Just like What Lasts Forever, Nyktophobia’s latest platter opens with a delicately atmospheric intro (“The Gateway”), keys, and synths building the anticipation for that first riff. And when that comes on the title track, guitarists Michael Tybussek and Phillip Reuter tear rip straight into classic melodeath lines from the Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum stable. Packed simultaneously with melancholy and fragile beauty, the guitars cascade over and around each other, as vocalist Tomasz Wisniewski rages between snarling rasps and thunderous roars, with more than a little of Amon Amarth’s Johan Hegg about him. Indeed, the spirit of Scandinavian melodic death metal is strong with these five Germans, particularly when they pick up the pace, like in portions of “Charon Gate” and on the outstanding “The Fall of Eden,”1 on which Michiel van der Plicht’s blasts and the churning riffs sweep you inexorably forward.
The pacing of this album is great, as Nyktophobia shift down through the gears, depositing you, breathless and broken after “The Fall of Eden,” on the shores of what initially appears to be a mid-album interlude. On “Progenitor,” birdsong and keys gradually restore your vitality but, hang on, what’s that, the guitars are back, van der Plicht’s drums kick in, Wisniewski tears into life and we’re off again. With only one track (the closer) passing the five-minute mark, and the whole album clocking in at a very tidy 38 minutes, To the Stars feels fluid, vibrant and immediate. Wisniewski’s vocals are often double-tracked, like on “Behind the Stars Exists No Light” and “Voyager 1,” which closes the album in suitably epic fashion, particularly as the grandiose synths drift into focus around the halfway mark. Slightly slower, bordering on melodic death doom in places, “Voyager 1” reminds me a bit of Exgenesis at times, which is both a very good thing and further cements the Scandi vibe that permeates To the Stars.
Let’s pretend, just for a minute, that I’m being paid to be ultra-critical. In such a world, I would probably criticize Nyktophobia slightly for their song transitions, which feel just a tiny bit lackluster. The majority of songs either fade out gradually or reach a crescendo, followed by a few seconds of distant feedback before the next track begins, when what I really want is for each song to flow languorously into the next. But this is all fantasy because I’m not being paid (to do anything) and, frankly, this record is too much fun to poke holes in. Is it something massively originally? No, not really but it’s beautifully and—crucially—tightly written, features great performances, and is very well produced. The guitars have a great tone to them, that really heightens the sense of melancholia, while the soundstage feels expansive, with plenty of room for Ben Bays’ bass.
It’s a mystery how, following What Lasts Forever, Nyktophobia still don’t have a record deal but, unsigned they remain (to the point that I’m starting to wonder whether it’s an active choice by the band because, if not, it makes zero fucking sense). I’ve been away from the reviews for a little while and, after a few months out of the game, I came straight back to drop a 4.0. So, I’ve looked at To the Stars from every angle to try and find a way to downgrade it, and avoid stomping that poor Score Safety Counter again, but there really isn’t one: this is just great melodic death metal, done right by a band that is crying out for a record deal.[2. Unless they don’t want one, in which case they aren’t.) And I’m not really very sorry about this because I’ve just discovered that Steel ‘Overrating Bastarding’ Druhm has a higher all-time average score than I do (this is absolute rubbish, libel, and borderline treason! – Steel Wengeance).
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-released
Websites: nyktophobia.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/nyktophobia
Releases Worldwide: July 5th, 2024
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