Nokturnal Mortum 'Nechrist'

I first heard of Nokturnal Mortum several months after Moscow-based Metal Agen Records released their album 'Lunar Poetry'. Not knowing anything at all about black metal, I was kind of amused when I saw someone's painted face in the pages of then very good Russian youth-oriented newspaper 'Ya Molodoi' (I am young). In those very pages one of the band members (I do not remember who it was) was courteous enough to provide some insights on both music and ideology of Nokturnal Mortum. He stated that band promoted 'peaceful paganism' and did not approve of either church burnings nor killing Christians. According to him, they just wanted to worship their ancient gods and exist alongside Christian religion without any Nokturnal Mortum 'Nechrist' interaction with it. "Well, fine" - I thought - "if somebody wants to pay tribute to Perun and Veles, they can do it, whatever". I tried to seek out (although not very actively) 'Lunar Poetry', but did not succeed (my hatred for tapes at that stage in my life did not help the cause either), and after a while I eventually forgot about this band, because I had some more serious things going on in my life. Couple years later, when I already moved to the USA, I was browsing Internet and somehow stumbled upon Russian Metal webpage which had link to the newly-founded The End Records. You can not imagine how surprised I was when I saw that one of their first releases was new Nokturnal Mortum album 'Goat Horns'! After listening to 'Unholy Orathania' track on The End compilation CD I decided to take my chances with NM, and, man, was not I happy back then that I did. This album smashed me like not a whole lot of other recordings did! Combining beautiful folk melodies with brutal (but not brainless and pointless) parts NM managed to create one hell of the listening experience, which while not being hundred percent original still carried distinctive sound and demonstrated style of its own. Lyrics were not included, but from the song titles it seemed that theme of 'peaceful paganism' was right around the corner. Time passed by, and The End released next NM album, very unoriginally titled 'To the Gates of Blasphemous Fire' (Lord Belial, anyone?). While not being a major disappointment, this new album could not by any means match the almost perfection the band was able to achieve on its predecessor. You see, for whatever reason NM decided to move into the same direction that Emperor was going to (by the way, in my opinion, BOTH bands failed miserably) - that is into composing more brutal and Death Metal oriented compositions. So, even though 'To the Gates...' did have its moments of brilliance (not a whole lot of them though), it was a definite step back for the band, and I started to fear that another good lot 'progressed' so much that I could no longer enjoy their music. As for the lyrics, that time around they were included and caused quite a confusion on my part, because some of them dealt with Lucifer, vampires and some other topics not quite fitting the theme of paganism (at least the way I understand it). I must admit, however, that I did not read all of them, so maybe I missed some important message included in the booklet (although I strongly doubt it). Oh well... Approximately at the same time Metal Maniacs ran a feature on Russian underground Metal scene. You can not imagine my astonishment when I read that NM considered themselves 'Slavonic Aryan Black Metal' band (or something like that) and Vaggroth (their leader if you don't know it yet) said that they fully supported church burnings. I rushed to my computer and checked unofficial (but far more comprehensive than the official one) page of NM, and while from the interviews it seemed like Vaggroth was more of an angry and confused misanthrope than anything else, one thing instantly caught my attention: interview to 'Ya Molodoi' that I mentioned earlier was recently deleted from the site due to the fact that reporter misunderstood and/or misrepresented band's ideology (?!!?). How could it be??? You tell me. Anyway, fast forward to Year 2000, and what we have here is new NM opus entitled 'Nechrist' (not-Christian or infiedel that is). The End described this album as a partial return to their more folkloric roots, and so, once again, I decided to take my chances with NM despite all the negative info I had about them. Not a very good idea to say the least! Why? Because this time NM decided to get straight to the point, and because of such a 'brave' decision this album came out as fascistic, slavonophilic and antisemitic as they get. Think RNE (Russian Nationalistic Unity, for those of you who is fortunate enough not to know them), take away all the Christian

references and here you have the new NM lyrics. It would be an understatement to say that I got very upset with such an approach, and thus I visited The End Records Forum and posted a message where I presented my feelings and emotions on this disgraceful action of both the band and the record company (you can view the whole discussion on The End homepage). I won't comment on each and every reply I got there, but I would like to take this opportunity to take a look on what Andreas Katsambas (sorry if I misspelled it), one of the founders of The End had to say regarding this subject. Point #1: artistic freedom, thus leave them alone. Well, it really saddens me that people will try to defend just about anything citing artistic freedom as the key. Should we then allow anybody to do anything, because she/he is entitled to artistic or any other kind of freedom? What about the Golden Rule? What about moral values? Does not matter? And if you say hedonism, then I have to say that the best thing for me in this case is to trash NM - it is my freedom to do so. Now, what really sickens me is that people will mention artistic freedom as long as this freedom does not threaten their own existence and benefits. That's why I asked Andreas how would he react if NM was singing about dead Greeks and not dead Jews. Reply? He said he does not even know if they do. Not knowing is easy, I guess. Well, it was not my point to ask him if he knows or not, but to find out his reaction if it was the case... Misunderstanding? You decide. As for the other 'oatmeal people' (thanx Wendy!) defending pseudo-artistic freedom, they reminded me of this talentless crappy Nazi band Absurd who got very upset when German Police pushed them around along with their shitty label No Colors. 'Hey, it's a democratic country' - they wept, those totalitarian fanatics, haha. Point #2: extreme Metal is EXTREME. First of all (yes, I have to say it again!), I do have moral values and I wish more people had some too, instead of blindly consuming anything that brings them satisfaction not thinking about consequences or anything at all. Barriers have to be there (I am talking about internal ones), and you can not hide behind extremity or anything else in such cases. Andreas tried to compare NM to Emperor and Dissection - not a very good idea. While I do not really approve of what either Faust or Jon did, I must remind you that their actions were directed against single persons and not against particular group of people, based on these people's national/racial origin. You could say what about strong anti-Christian position of bands like Dissection, Marduk, Dark Funeral etc? Firstly, I do not take them as seriously (it does not mean I ignore their statements) as NM, because I lived to Russia for 20 years and I know how much Jews are hated by nationalists of all kinds in Slavonic countries. But more importantly, you can not say that nazism/racism is equal to anti-Christianity for one simple reason: you are not born Christian (believe it or not!) and you can eventually change/abandon your religion if you have guts/brain to do it, but you can not change you race/nationality even if you live through the complete blood transfusion - you will live and die the way you were born. Period. You hear me Mike G? Point #3: NM and Black Metal in general should not be taken seriously. Does not sit well with point #2, does it? Again we have a comparison here, this time with Cannibal Corpse and Deicide. I don't really think Cannibal Corpse would construct a real Tomb of the Mutilated, but I think that Glen Benton, given a chance, would love to take away some Christians. As for NM, I am afraid they are quite serious in their meaningless hatred towards Jews. Anyway, if you, as an owner of the label, disagree with band's philosophy and do not take them seriously, why not make it public from day one? OK people, I guess we are running late here - I could make hundred more points, but it would be too much for anyone (including myself) to take. I also wanted to note that I understand that this review does not really look like one, but rather qualifies for an essay, but my decision is to present it to you as a review, because I strongly believe that music and ideology go hand in hand and can not be separated (even if sometimes I wish it could be possible). I also realize that some of you could be still interested in actual sounds found on the recording in question. Well, it's good, but I don't buy rotten product no matter what kind of attractive packaging they put it in. And the last and very important point: all the arguments presented here are NORMATIVE rather than POSITIVE statements, which means that they probably include as much emotion and feeling as they do logic and common sense. Implications? Well, if you come here with skepticism and negative attitude, you are most likely to leave this site in the same state of mind, and there is not much I can do about it. But if you are like me, if you are more than just a consumer looking for the best deal possible, if you want and are able to think, then, hopefully, this writing will make all the difference in this stinky world. And, by the way, fuck Nokturnal Mortum! Andy.