N.K.V.D. - Vlast review
| Band: | N.K.V.D. |
| Album: | Vlast |
| Style: | Industrial black metal |
| Release date: | 2011 |
01. Geheime Staats Polizei
02. Incipit SSSR
03. Ibn Al Khattab
04. Alkhan-Kala
05. Geniul Din Carpati
06. Krasnaya Paranoia
07. Socijalisticka Federativna Republika Jugoslavija
08. Grozny
A spectre is haunting black metal ? the spectre of communism. What? Hell no, don't be misguided by the grandiose soviet aesthetic of the cover artwork and the imposing hammer & sickle at its centre. It's not a call to arms for the proletariat to fight back oppression. Judging from the title of their first EP, Dictatura, and its cover which is a multi-portrait of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Slobodan Milosevic and Akhmad Kadyrov you can get a reference to what N.K.V.D.'s music wants to bring forth through their politically incorrect design status. Everything becomes clearer when you get in mind that N.K.V.D. (Narodny Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del - People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) was one of Stalin's major weapons to strangle the voices of his opposers once and forever.
Vlast is their debut full-length release and it's a ruthless, massive blast of hatred through its vast, emotionless and cold soundscapes. Of course it's industrial black metal we're talking about, drawing its inspiration from totalitarian rulers whose voice is breathing through the compositions with sampled speeches they left behind them in the march of history. Big moustache, small moustache, no moustache, the actions are in the same sphere, it's the magnitude that differs and the veil under which they are covered. N.K.V.D. set this veil aflame and evoke a mechanical, often militaristic, ambiance through their sonic rapture.
The compositions are surrounded by a thick darkness as if a parasitic swarm was omnipresent during the recording. The production compliments Vlast, accomplishing in the first place everything the band wanted to present through their sound and visual aspects. There's a heavy industry working on in here, from the mechanical fumes and effects to the programmed drumming and from the menacing continuous riffing to the floating threat, the keyboards. "Socijalisticka Federativna Republika Jugoslavija" is the perfect example of instrumental militaristic industrial black metal with bombastic ambiance which engulfs pure human darkness and whose only voice is a sample. Of course there are vocals in the album that enrich the band's visions through their either fuming/rasping or hoarse echoing edge. Without them the outcome would still be clinical, but with them it's exquisite.
I have to admit that I really adored the very end of the album, a few seconds of chanting from an orthodox liturgy is always welcome after all this chaos, with the difference that it makes the effect even stronger with some hypocrisy-infused divinity.
You don't know what to expect until you listen, you will definitely find some Mysticum in here, but in the end what you'll really witness is 37 minutes of abhorrent disharmony and echoes from the recent past transmuted in morse signals in exchange for your soul.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 10 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 10 |
 | Written on 31.08.2011 by "It is myself I have never met, whose face is pasted on the underside of my mind." |
Comments page 3 / 3
Comments: 72
Visited by: 540 users
| !J.O.O.E.! Account deleted |
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| Karlabos Meat and Potatos Posts: 5658  |
2nd wave Black metal:"Christianism sucks, let's kill the Christians! Hail Satin!" Metalhead reaction: "Hell yeah! Fvckn trve! So hardcore!" NSBM: "Judaism sucks, let's kill the jews! Hail Hitler!" Metalhead reaction: "Dude... That's fucked up..." I never understood this paradox... 
---- "Aah! The cat turned into a cat!" - Reimu Hakurei
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| Vombatus Potorro Posts: 2355  |
Written by Karlabos on 28.04.2014 at 22:12 Antisemitism is based on a racial feature (inherit to the person), while christianity is only belief (personal decision). I still think it's a bit pathetic to tolerate/glorify one and not the other, though. Also, Holocaust has caused much more impact both physically (numbers of deaths in record time) and psychologically (ww2 aftermath, shoa memory,constant homage/tribute, etc...) than any other massacre of christians.... And historically, the Church hasn't always been an example to follow (which gives the tr00 northern black metal warriors a reason to hate christianity) while jews were pretty much scape-goats forever. So yeah, I think this "paradox" you mention is quite a normal thing afterall.
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| mz Posts: 4773  |
Written by Karlabos on 28.04.2014 at 22:12 So true.
---- Giving my ears a rest from music.
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| mz Posts: 4773 |
Written by deadone on 28.04.2014 at 09:44 I haven't seen N.K.V.D being associated with NSBM or fascism but at the end, even if the band tries to glorify these subjects, the fact is that for listener , in some way, it would be easier to feel the oppressive atmosphere of dictatorial governments by this record and thus, it will gain, in an odd way, sympathy for the victims of those regimes. In the other word, the final result, regardless of the intention of the band, would not be any good for likes of Hitler.
---- Giving my ears a rest from music.
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| mz Posts: 4773 |
Musically speaking, this album has have one of the greatest impacts on my musical taste. I was wandering in MS one day and saw this review of Derr and because there were a lot of advanced words which I just recently had memorized, I decided to try this. It was followed by listening to gnaw their tongues, which I again was sold on because of Derr's review. It was a little to intense for me but after one week, I finally got used to the dark thickness of this record. Then, went to blut aus nord, because I was looking for more industrial black metal. Pretty not an standard introduction to black metal I guess, but thanks God these three bands are among my favorite bands now and I adore them. Before this album, I enjoyed the less abrasive forms of BM, like aggaloch and enslaved, but my interest in those bands was not becasue of BM aesthetic. This was pretty much my starting point.
---- Giving my ears a rest from music.
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| !J.O.O.E.! Account deleted |
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino staff Posts: 18274  |
Way better than my first encounters with BM, mostly old Dimmu Birgir... Then again, it could have been worse. The first 3 albums are still good enough for me. 
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| mz Posts: 4773 |
Written by Guest on 28.04.2014 at 23:16 This record is probably one of the top 10 most influential records of my life. Also, unfortunately, it is true that there are not many albums similar to this. The closest thing I've heard are helel and mysticum, which are not that similar. Most of the stuff labeled as industrial black metal is too much on cyber road for me.
---- Giving my ears a rest from music.
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| mz Posts: 4773 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 28.04.2014 at 23:39 It was not my first encounter with BM. I loved agalloch, enslaved and primordial (just had heard one record at that time) but this was the album that made me interested in BM aesthetic. I also had checked a few BM albums of 2nd wave, which did not like at all before going for this record.
---- Giving my ears a rest from music.
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| Autokrator Posts: 59  |
Quote: I wished i could pay callgirls and drugs from NKVD royalties, but it never happened  Quote: Cancer killed a lot of people in my family, but i still enjoy listening to "Death Shall Rise" or "To the Gory End"
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino staff Posts: 18274 |
Written by Autokrator on 28.03.2015 at 20:08 Woah woah woah woah. Wait a minute. Are you from NKVD too? Awesome. Although I gotta admit I feel a bit awkward about not actually liking the latest NKVD, I just elt the debut was so much better. Sorry brah. xD
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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