Nahar – The Strange Inconvenience (2013)

Featuring a cleaner and more melodic sound than legendary Inquisition, Naha brings upon us their sophomore release “The Strange Inconvenience”. Hailing from France, this two man band unleashes six tracks of well-paced Black Metal that is quite crushing and yet somewhat melodic in nature. The band focuses more on creating a very cavernous feeling rather than delivering acrobatically insane furious Black Metal, thus they manage to create a very unique and dense release not apt for the weak of mind.

Opening with “Grey Concrete... Comfort”, the band established a powerful wall of distorted guitars and commanding vocals. Clocking in at nearly 10 minutes, this song weaves back and forth from creepy harsh sections to creepy atmospheric passages. “Purifying Negativity” changes the pace a bit with faster sections, but the overall creepy atmosphere is still there. Things start getting a bit more experimental in “D.M.T.” and “Pessimist”, two tracks that showcase the band’s ability to craft melodic (and even jazzy) passages and mix them with the harsh vocals and BM riffs (on “Pessimist”).

By the time we hit “An Atavistic Manner”, the band has greatly shown their musical depth and if you don’t like them by now, you should probably just go and listen to some Metalcore. In this nearly 12-minute track, the band keeps building up with the stop-and-go approach filled with crushing BM riffs and harsh vocals. Closing the album we have the weird “Eléctric Equinox” that feels more like a filler improvisational track that any other thing.

Overall, “The Strange Inconvenience” is indeed one strange album. The band very skillfully mixes Black Metal with interesting instrumental passages while still maintaining a very raw and cavernous feeling. If you are looking for some weird and interesting Black Metal, this is one release you do not want to miss.

Label: Avantgarde Music

Release: April 23rd, 2013

Genre: Black Metal

Country: France