Nocturnal Depression - Reflections of a Sad Soul

I sometimes find myself shying away from writing articles about certain music. Mostly music I am not sure how to describe. Totally the case with Nocturnal Depression's album Reflections of a Sad Soul. But as I've listened to this album on repeat for over a week now, there is now way I cannot write about it. So here we go. 

I came across Nocturnal Depression when researching the black metal subgenre Depressive Suicidal Black Metal (DSBM). DSBM is an umbrella term for an arrangement of metal styles. Some bands skip the suicidal part and call themselves Melancholic Black Metal, Depressive Black Metal or Atmospheric Black Metal. Musically, DSBM bands melded the second-wave black metal style with doom metal elements. You tend to have the black metal typical lo-fi recording style, highly distorted guitars and shrieked vocals combined with acoustic guitars and the slow-mid tempo from doom metal. The lyrics revolve around suicide, self-harm, nihilism, death and sorrow. Probably not very appealing on first glance. I've just dipped my toe into this pit of despair, but so far, I liked what I heard.

Her Ghost Haunts These Walls is deadly repetitive. If you don't like repetitive songs, you will probably hate this. It is the same melody over and over again for over 10 minutes. Lord Lokhraed's vocals are raw and neither nice nor particularly good. But they aren't supposed to be. This song is beautiful in its simplicity and brings you melancholy in its purest form.

From this song, I switched to the accompanying album, which runs for 66 Minutes spread over 7 songs. The intro is your standard black metal intro and can be ignored. It ends with a gunshot, which snaps your attention back to the music if you droned out before. The album is divided by the instrumental piece Solitude and Despair, which consists of a nice little guitar riff, flowing on and on and on for about seven minutes. The first half of the album is the weaker one in my opinion, with the opener The Whispering Spectrum being the song I tend to skip the most. The drudging pace and tormented squeals are not always bearable. You have to be in the right mood for this one. Fading Away in the Fog is the only faster song on the album, showcasing some nice tremolo picking and faster drumming. The second half of the album is really strong and I tend to listen to those three songs on repeat. Voices from Inside is my second highlight on this release. The clean part starting at around 5:50 gets me every time. While the crying part might be a bit much, Lokhread's wail is perfect. Full of despair and hopelessness.

For those who are not put off by the term Depressive and Suicidal, give those three songs a shot. I find them quite uplifting, even if this sounds counter-intuitive. Her Ghost Haunts These Walls, Nevica and Voices from Inside put you in a 30-minute trance, engulfing you with ever repeating melodies until you just breath them naturally. Lokhread's voice becomes one with the voices in your mind and when the music stops, you feel a bit lighter.