DIE BY DESIGN
Now It Starts to Make Sense
(Mother Should Know)

THIS WILL DESTROY YOU
S/T
(Magic Bullet)

EGYPT
S/T
(Lyderhorn)

BROWN JENKINS
Angel Eyes
(Moribund)

DUB TRIO
Another Sound is Dying
(Ipecac)

HATE ETERNAL
Fury & Flames 

(Metal Blade)

BITCHSLICER
III Lycathropic Fellatio

(Worldeater)

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Man, if Instinct: Decay blew your mind this new offering by Chicago’s finest will absolutely shatter your brain into tiny little microscopic pieces. It is that good and much more.  Like many intrepid artists with a cracked open mind before him, leadman Blake Judd had already been messing about with psychedelics in Instinct: Decay. He added the sounds to an already charged up and loaded gamut of guitars, frosty vocals and battalion drums ending up with one of the most unique sounding and potent experimental black metal records ever.  In Assassins, Judd, banks on it (psychedelics) even more. Evidently, Blake was aware that in order to take Nachtmystium to the next level he could not rely only on his talent alone.  So he’s knocked on all the right doors, recruited Tony Laureano (Angelcorpse, Nile Dimmu Borgir) to play the drums and then enlisted knob twiddling master Parker Sanford (minsk, Yakuza, Rwake, Pelican) to not only produce Assassins but to participate creatively and join the band adding effects, moog and synthesizer. The results of the collaboration are in evidence; the songs are big, well-rounded and deep, like a battallion attacking at full force. The general sound is layered, potent and at times, downright divine, like the most ridiculously rich pancake.

There are moments where Nachtmystium steps into full black metal mode, but that is just the surface, as there is always something else going on; warm yet eerie sounds lurking, bopping and jumping about. Crystalizing guitar tones shooting one way, clear licks evoking the open milky way and in the end, always a thrashing riff that culminates in splatters of blood.  For the most part in Assassins the weight of the multicolor is too much to ignore. It is almost 50/50 with the guitars, but the result is surprisingly heavy, trippy and at times even vintage with a clear nod to 70’s prog acts. Had any of those fuckers ever be willing to rock out with their crucifixes upside down. Nachtmystium has certainly taken its chances. They’ve gone to opposite way of the current black metal herd mentality of keeping it lo fi and in the bedroom.  Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1 is the result. The big pay off. Stunning from whichever way you see it.

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