Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Noctiferia
Label: SAOL
Release date: year_month
Length: 37:37
Rating: 4/5
Noctiferia undoubtedly have a special status on home soil. Their demo Gods of Počka (1996) brought black metal to Slovenia, their debut Baptism at Savica Fall is the country’s first black metal record, and the cult video for Fond of Lies spent a whole eight weeks at number one on the Videospotnice chart back in 2002, dragging extreme metal in front of a wider audience. To the disappointment of some and the delight of others, Noctiferia’s evolution gradually pulled their sound away from primal black and death metal. Slovenska morbida showed the band in a new, experimental light, adding elements of industrial, electronica and ethno to the metal foundation. Death Culture was a hefty upgrade of all the above, and now, with Noctiferia, we’re stepping into an era of (apparent?) peace. Pax.
Allow me a slightly longer intro. Death Culture took the State of Noctiferia so far that a totalitarian regime took root in it, and its existence is flagged by the totalitarian iconography of the simple but effective cover, which recalls Soviet propaganda from the era of Stalinist dictatorship. In this dystopian society, the individual is just a cell of a higher organism – the state – and the whole point of their existence is total subservience to it. The state pulls this off with permanent revolution, propaganda, terror and a political system that holds power over both public and private life. Without the lyrics this is just my guesswork, but Pax seems to be a conceptually, or at least thematically, complete whole. So Pax presents the birth of a totalitarian police state whose goal is the complete dehumanization of its people, whose very essence becomes nothing more than unconditional participation in and subordination to a state that is as global as Orwell’s Oceania. Sleeper Is Awake can be seen as the birth of the leader cult, who like Big Brother watches over everything and everyone, while Gaga People presents the glue the state uses to control society. The hypnopedia and soma of Brave New World, the Soylent Green of the film of the same name and the book-burning of Fahrenheit 451 are replaced here by hyper pop culture, which turns the people into obedient sheep or, as Dostoevsky would put it, lice. With Cellulite of This World the people begin to wake from their controlled trance, and The Falsifier is the point where they realize the authorities are lying to them and controlling them. The people respond with fury and force (Su Maha Ghora), setting off a stormy uprising (Rudra the Roarer), which the state tries to stop with an I Am You mindset, but the citizens break free of their rulers’ shackles (Wetiko), reach a higher level of existence, and carry on with their lives in a commune of equals (Barai).
Noctiferia plunge us into the dictatorship of a dystopian state and totalitarian mindset with a mighty sonic image, one that has never sounded this massive. Thanks to the excellent production, the record’s crushing power is truly like a storm of rebellion against tyranny, beating you down like the riffs of the Nardin/Fileš guitar duo. They are the main carriers of the album’s fat groove, which brings Noctiferia closer to more modern bands that, if you will, swim in djent waters. But Noctiferia’s long mileage, their masterful songwriting and their feel for composition show through, and there’s no sense of been-there-heard-that on the album. Just a few opening moments of the seismic slowness of Rudra the Roarer recall Meshuggah, thanks to the use of eight-string guitars. Despite the groove foundation and the industrial pounding, the riffs are varied enough that they never become monotonous or repetitive for a second, and there’s again more attention paid to Nardin’s solos, which once more sound outstanding, fresh, apocalyptic and, in their atonality, as menacing as the technology of a dystopia. The epic, hypnotic sawing of the guitars is deliberately built up by the punch of Uroš’s bass, which digs into the strings with the force of the Ludwig Van effect from A Clockwork Orange and adds even more to the atmosphere of a totalitarian state beating down on its citizens. Gergeta adds the indispensable note to the rhythm section with menacing, tribal drumming. Although the drumming sounds simple on first listen, every further spin uncovers new dimensions of varied transitions and thoughtful accents for the other instruments (diverse rhythmic breaks together with the guitars, syncopated parts and the like). New member Damjan Tomoski creates a spine-chilling atmosphere of inhuman, robotic life with his keyboards, and the numerous, diverse samples and patterns and the Eastern elements only back up and upgrade the music and its message, even if in places they can feel oversaturated. The result from the instrumental five-piece is so mighty that at first it seems almost too pompous, but thanks to the just-right length of the album it never tips into overkill, and with every new listen you can discover plenty of things you hadn’t heard before. Gianni also sounds extremely convincing this time. His growl is powerful and clear, and his vocals, which in places also offer clean lines, sound clear, punchy and full of message!
If Gaga People, as the first, introductory single, sounded pretty strange and almost danceable, raising doubts about the new record, Pax as a whole convinces perhaps even as strongly as Per Aspera did last time. Pax is bold, experimental, and both thematically and musically coherent and effective. Noctiferia remain socially critical, wrap it in their own distinctive look and amplify the message with the crushing power of the music, which sounds fresh and punchy despite elements we already know. Stop what you’re doing… And listen to Pax!
Line-up
Uroš Lipovec – bass
Igor Nardin – guitar, keyboards
Gianni Poposki – vocals, percussion
Matthias Gergeta – drums, percussion
Roman Fileš – guitar
Damjan Tomoski – keyboards
Production
Igor Nardin and Dame Tomoski, recorded at Negiglence Studio (Jan Švigelj, Žiga Zmazek), mixing and mastering by Johan Ornborg and Jens Bogren
Tracklist
1. Pax
2. Sleeper Is Awake
3. Gaga People
4. Cellulite of This World
5. The Falsifier
6. Su Maha Ghora
7. Rudra the Roarer
8. I Am You
9. Wetiko
10. Barai
