1. Chemin Vers le Néant (Intro)
2. Stain of a Broken Life
3. Crimson Shroud
4. The Link of Reminiscence
5. The Dark Matter
6. Éternel Sommeil (Outro)
Comment:
1st album by this swedish band of dark, heavy and atmospheric Doom/ Death for lovers of stuff like SWALLOW THE SUN, NOVEMBERS DOOM, SATURNUS, INBORN SUFFERING, DOOM:VS...
"But Jonathan told me that in Nangilima (...) is a cheerful time full of joy and play. Yes, there played the people, of course, they worked well and helped each other at all, but they also played a lot and sang and danced (...)." I was really surprised when I discovered the origin of the band name NANGILIMA. The quote is an extract from the children's book "The Brothers Lionheart" ("Bröderna Lejonhjärta") by the Swedish author Astrid Lindgren. Nangilima, the land of bliss and felicity. Rather an unorthodox name for a band playing some kind of Doom or Funeral Black Metal. But since NANGILIMA are also from Sweden I guess they have chosen the name pointedly. So unconventionally the name may be, musically there is, however, a rather average and familiar outcome. Four song (plus intro & outro), slow played with a very dominant piano, deep grunting vocals, sometimes spoken words. Generally spoken I have always one problem with such music – I must be in a certain mood to listen to it. A sunny, non-working day and this music is just boring. But in more calmed down situation the music does its best to take you on a journey, like a daydream. So does "The Dark Matter". Did I write average above? Well, that is just because there are plenty of Doom Metal bands out there which are on the same level. For one it is a good produced and played Doom / Funeral Metal release, otherwise nothing spectacular or high-class music.
Nangilima. A death/doom band with members from Sweden, Bulgaria and Spain finally released their debut album. I discovered these guys when they released their first single called Thanatos, I loved it and hoped the band would build upon that for their full album. Now it's time to see if they did just that.
There is a short answer for this. Do you want it? Of course you do. The short answer is no, and now we take a look into why that is. Let's begin with the line-up because there's been some changes on that front. On the Thanatos single, Nangilima consisted of Emilio on vocals and C.L. was handling all instruments. That's changed in the likes of C.L. being replaced by Nikolay Velev on guitar, bass and keys. And then Khalvst who's doing programming and keys as well.
The Dark Matter is a concept album about a man who finds out that his life is coming to an end. The album then takes you through four seasons ultimately leading to the characters death in the outro. However there was supposed to be another track on the album but it was omitted as the guitar/bassist, Amarok left the band. That track is Fractions of a Shattered Soul and was released as a single only and in my opinion it was not a good decision to omit that track from The Dark Matter. Together with Thanatos, those two tracks reign among their best so far because of the variation they feature both when it comes to the music and vocals.
Negativity aside there's definitely good things to take from this debut album. The drums sounds better than ever and I have to address a special kudos to Khalvst for the amazing keyboard work. Overall the production is without a doubt better than before and that does help the band a lot and move them away from the demo sound. Throughout the album I do however feel there's too much emphasis on the doom element and not enough on the death element that's been tagged into their genre. When I think death/doom bands like Asphyx comes to my mind. Combine that with Nangilima's two first singles and I must admit I did have some expectations for this record and they were not met. It feels like they confined themselves into this little doom metal box and don't want to break out of it - or maybe that's what they wanted to put forth the atmosphere they feel they needed for this concept album. My problem with that is that throughout 42 minutes of listening it's just slow paced all the way and they never rise from the second track, Stains of a Broken Life, which is the best track on the album. The rest of the tracks follows the same path, same recipe, same gear and it doesn't really makes me want to listen to the record again, it simply lacks the really memorable songs.
The album lacks what their two first singles had. The variation in music and vocals. Changing into a higher tempo and changing into more black metal-focused vocals but that's never really present in the same way. After Stains of a Broken Life I think the keyboard is out-doing the other instruments as they simply don't bring the same performance. In spite of all this, I'm going to look forward to their next record anyway. I don't believe they will write the same album twice and I really want to hear more of that fantastic keyboard work. I'd recommend this to the real doom metal doomoholics. If you're missing a doom emphasized album with great atmosphere and hard hits then this is definitely for you. I'd simply wish I was one of them.
Nangilima are a band that has been featured before in this zine with members from both Spain and Sweden and plays a blackened form of doom metal and this is a review of their 2014 album "The Dark Matter" which was released by Xtreem Music.
Dark sounding atmospheric synths start off the album and after the intro the music goes for more of a heavy and slow funeral doom metal sound along with some death metal growls and also keeping the atmosphere that was introduced on the intro along with a good amount of melody and there are also some black metal screams being added into certain sections of the recording.
Most of the tracks are very long and epic in length and as the album progresses clean playing can be heard in certain sections of the recording along with some melodic guitar leads that add more of a dark and depressive atmosphere to the bands musical style and all of the songs stick to a very slow, dark, heavy and melodic direction with no fast parts or blast beats to be heard anywhere on this recording while there is a brief use of spoken word parts on one of the tracks.
Nangilima plays a very slow, dark, heavy, melodic and atmospheric style of funeral doom on this album as well as keeping around some of the black metal influences of their early material to enhance the dark atmosphere, the production sounds very dark and heavy while the lyrics cover dark and depressive themes.
In my opinion this is another great sounding recording from Nangilima and if you are a fan of atmospheric funeral doom with black metal elements, you should check out this album. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Stain Of A Broken Life" and "The Dark Matter".
Since the 90’s, the mix between a heavy and oppressive sound in BLACK SABBATH way with Death Metal brutal grasp is a very known formula, used before by many, and which gave to Metal some classics as “Serenades”, “Gothic”, “Shades of God”, “Turn Loose the Swan” and many others. But after 20 years, Doom Death Metal still seduces many people, and good bands from the style rises in the entire world, and NANGILIMA, a band formed by three guys from different countries, is a good name from the style, as their first album, “The Dark Matter”, shows.
The band has a difference between the ancients ones from the style: their music is heavy and abrasive (as Doom Death Metal must be, of course), but the elegance and melancholy are presented in a form by the keyboards to so commonly used on the style. And the mix of extreme guttural vocals (but clean ones appear sometimes), bitter guitar riffs, bass and drums forming a heavy rhythmic kitchen, and the keyboards detailed above is very good to our ears.
Nikolay Velev did the mixing and mastering, and the sound flows abrasive and heavy, with enough quality to understand the instruments apart. And to their musical work, it’s a demand.
The band members focused their energies in creating very long songs with very good musical arragements, in the tradition of some bands from the so called Funeral Doom Death Metal, being two of them instrumental ones (“Chemin vers le néant” and “Éternel sommeil”), and the other four are songs full of variations and great moments (“Stain of a Broken Life”, “Crimson Shroud”, “The Link of Reminiscence”, and “The Dark Matter”), all of them elegant and oppressive, showing a very good band that deserves an opportunity. So give it to them, dear nephews and nieces, for you won’t complain of that.
Very good work, and it’s impossible to not love it.
Swedish doom band founded in January 2013 by Emilio (Ov Mhurn) and former member C.L (Eskapi).
'The Dark Matter' is their first album and is a concept based on a man who has learned that in a years time, he will no longer be around on this earth. Heavily overwhelmed, he embarks on a mental journey, facing so many emotions that invade and corrode him. The album will go through four stages of emotion: Sorrow, rage, reminiscence, and finally, acceptance.
Starting with a piano driven, almost classical opening we then get four long well executed slabs of symphonic doom, the emphasis being on the symphonic, lots of beautiful keyboards and synths and some great guitar playing, not your ususal doom laden heavy drums and powerchord stuff, sure the vocals are the gruff style you tend to get these days, but overall it all creates a huge sound. The final piece returns to the straight keyboard classical sound.
Nangilima is a relatively new melodic doom/death band whose current three members reside in Sweden, Spain and Bulgaria. Singer Emilio Crespo, who lives in Sweden, has the Spanish nationality. So far when it comes to background information. The band was formed in 2013 and has released a CD-single and two digital singles. ‘The Dark Matter’ is the official debut by this band. A debut that sounds quite well, but can’t completely convince me. The band sounds too much alike other bands. Somewhat of an own style would do this band well. Now Nangilima sounds like a mix of Doom:VS and Ea. I can also hear similarities to bands like Swallow The Sun, Draconian and to a lesser extent Evoken. In short, a decent debut that doesn’t break any boundaries.
Aún no repuesto de la enorme sorpresa que ha significado chocar con este álbum, escribo esta crítica entusiasta. Y es que creo sinceramente que cualquier amante del buen Doom épico y metálico, sin rastros de rock gótico, disfrutará como un niño de estos seis cortes de auténtica descarga de emociones intensas.
2014 creo que deberá ser recordado como el año de gracia del Doom español (aunque en el caso de NANGILIMA nos encontremos delante de una formación hispanosueca). Tras la aparición del segundo disco de AUTUMNAL, de una obra maestra firmada por HELEVORN, del punkismo extremo de BARBARIAN SWORDS, del último trabajo de DANTALION, y ya a puntito de ver en la calle tanto el esputo de maldad que será FAMISHGOD como el nuevo EP de los deseados EVADNE. NANGILIMA, pues, llegan en el momento justo en que se produce un despertar maravilloso de bandas de Doom españolas. El panorama del género ha cambiado por completo en muy poco tempo, del semidesierto al panorama actual donde uno tiene para escoger sobre muy diversas propuestas. Bienvenidos sean todos, cada uno con su respectiva enfermedad necrófila. ¿Es que al final resultará qe nos convertiremos en el buque insignia de la tristeza y los sepulcros?
Espero la doble nacionalidad del producto contribuya a mejorar su distribución, y que se le haga justicia a este discazo como los grandes de los años noventa. Y, sin embargo, creo que los referentes están más cerca y no precisamente dentro de Suecia: NANGILIMA me ha sonado a OFFICIUM TRISTE por el protagonismo otorgado a los teclados, y la maestría con que son manejados e integrados, y a OPHIS por el modo de progresar las guitarras en cada uno de estos largos temas que acostumbran a superar los siete minutos de duración.
Para lamentar: el disco se hace corto. NO ES CORTO, puesto que dura unos habituales 42 minutos, y sin embargo termina de forma algo abrupta, tras una outro instrumental adecuada y convincente, melancólica sin aspavientos, a lo DARK SANCTUARY. Sin embargo, lo digo sin ambages: con uno o dos temas más, “The Dark Matter” se hubiera convertido en una obra maestra del Doom continental. Uno se queda con la miel en los labios, un buen remate hubiera sido ya demasiado.
Pero no importa. Aquí quedan estos magnífcos y solemnes cortes para deleite de los amantes de la lentitud y la belleza. Mi enhorabuena a esta banda que, tras nacer el año pasado, nos ha dado esta magnífica pieza de buen hacer. ¿Qué conseguirán en el futuro si siguen por esta senda? Yo ya espero más, y también espero que no tarden.
For me doom, whether sung with clean vocals or grunts, has always been about emotion. There are so many doom bands in the world, but not too many that can get an emotion across. Swedish doom formation NANGILIMA does it pretty well. The sadness, the despair, I can clearly hear it in the music. Especially the brilliant use of the keyboards gives this extra dimension to the music. I feel the same way about MY DYING BRIDE. The band obviously is brilliant, but in my mind the use of violins pushes the band in further beyond.
I was kinda surprised when I found out that THE DARK MATTER was released by the Spanish label XTREEM MUSIC. Most of the time I receive brutal and somewhat obscure deathmetal releases from this label. Don't get me wrong, I found NANGILIMA to be a pleasant surprise.
As you may expect from a doom band, the songs are all quite long. The six songs last for over forty-two minutes, but I never had the feeling that the duration of the songs was too long. My personal favorite song of the album is THE LINK OF REMINSCENCE. A beautiful song where grunts and spoken word, groove and slow doom go hand in hand.
La historia de esta banda se remonta a Junio de 2013, historia bastante reciente sí, pero que por otro lado se extiende más allá de esta fecha, esto solo es un punto de partida, la andadura por un camino nuevo por el que deambular y dar rienda suelta a lo que dentro de la mente de sus creadores se esconde, es ahí donde reside el alma de esta banda, la oscuridad y la belleza van juntas de la mano, como si de dos hermanas gemelas se tratara, siempre juntas, cada una con su propia personalidad, virtudes y defectos, pero nacidas de una misma materia, expuestas para siempre al mundo y a sus peligros en el transcurso de sus vidas, en un efímero lapso de tiempo.
Los padres de estas dos criaturas, estas gemelas llamadas oscuridad y belleza, son en realidad tres: Emilio (voz), Khalvst ov Mhurn (batería, teclados) y Nikolay Velev (guitarra, bajo, teclados, batería) que al conjunto familiar han dado el nombre de NANGILIMA (una tierra de luz) y a su creación más reciente “The Dark Matter”, que sale editado a través de Xtreem Music, otra cosa no pero, la calidad sin medias tintas esta asegurada, que duda cabe.
Partiendo de esta información subjetiva, es el momento de adentrarnos en la música que nos ofrece NANGILIMA, es Doom/ Death pesado, lento y melancólico, lleno de melodías solemnes que principalmente proceden de teclados y sintetizadores, que son los verdaderos protagonistas en este trabajo, siempre presentes y en primer plano, los demás instrumentos, guitarra, bajo, batería e incluso la voz, forman parte como de un segundo plano, pero en el mejor de los sentidos, como de una segunda escena, como si fueran la atmósfera que le da sustento al resto, cuando en teoría debería ser al revés.
Esa es la sensación que percibo en las canciones de “The Dark Matter”, resulta inquietante lo acertadamente recreadas que están en conjunto las atmósferas, el mensaje llega bien, sin interferencias, tomándose su tiempo para entrar en situación y dar oportunidad a que el oyente se adapte a cada momento, a cada situación, las canciones son historias contadas de forma diferente, que dan lugar a entendimientos distintos, con múltiples interpretación que desembocan en un fin común que es el de transmitir impresiones en formato musical.
Una parte que me ha gustado bastante de este disco, además de las atmósferas recreadas en él, es la voz, cortesía de Emilio, los registros vocales son en su totalidad guturales, sin voces limpias, voces casi lineales e hipnóticas, como si de un “mantra” se tratara, como un poder psicológico o espiritual oculto, formulas en verso que dan cuerpo al conjunto musical, dando a cada canción la fuerza que, por ejemplo, para mi gusto y en cierto modo, le falta a las guitarras, y a la producción en general, esto es solo un apunte a nivel personal, y siempre desde mi punto de vista, la producción no es mala ni deficiente, solo es cuestión de gustos en cuanto a sonido.
Canciones equilibradas y de una duración media que va de los 7 a los 10 min. Respetando de este modo la fórmula Doom/Death típica en cuanto a formato y estructuras, llenas de riffs, melodías y pasajes interesantes, sin caer en excesivas repeticiones, tan fácilmente aplicables a este tipo de música, y en las cuales la mayoría de bandas del género, por querer dar solemnidad a sus canciones, terminan por darle somnolencia a su música. “The Dark Matter” es un gran trabajo, un acierto para sus creadores y para Xtreem Music por confiar en su música, esperemos los frutos que coseche esta banda sean todos buenos, altamente recomendables para seguidores de bandas como DRACONIAN, CALADAN BROOD, AGALLOCH, DOOM VS, ELDERWIND, SWALLOW THE SUN, EA, ACACIA, FUNERAL TEARS, WHEN NOTHING REMAINS o los grandiosos EVOKEN.
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