Band:	N.K.V.D.
Album:	Hakmarrja
Style:	Industrial black metal
Release date:	October 17, 2014
A review by:	X-Ray Rod

01. Exordium
02. Hakmarrja
03. Wolfschanze
04. Za Krajla
05. The Invisible Empire
06. Travail Famille Patrie
07. Batallion Vostok
08. U.C.K.
09. Red Silence
10. Excipit

For someone as lazy as I am, I love when reviews write themselves. So without any delay I'll start with a simple "What the fuck happened?"

Seriously, what happened? N.K.V.D.'s Diktatura EP gave a promise of great things to come and then some. Later on Vlast came along and it was, well? A blast. Yeah, not original but at least I don't need to. Vlast was so much in your face than even a pornstar would think it was too much. Hakmarrja on the other hand just drags on and on with songs that should just be intros. The tempo and structure of the songs barely change throughout the album. We went from unforgiving war to something inoffensive and monotonous like Battleship. Scratch that? At least that game involves violence since there's always a cheating asshole that gets rightfully beat up (fuck you, cousin).

Where's the harshness? The oppression? That feeling of disgust and wonder at tragedies of war and brutal leaders? Their previous works captured fear, insecurity, and sheer indifference towards the madness. You just felt like Stalin went to raid your place with an army and executed you right there. No questions asked. This feels like Putin. Sure, that dude portraits a lot of wrong things in this world but hey, there are a lot of memes about him so it's easy to have a laugh. But I bet you wouldn't fuck with someone that named himself the man of steel and acted accordingly.

So yeah, I don't want to take too much of your time. I learned from these guys. So here you go: Slow to mid-paced industrial black metal that tries to be gloomy. Some great moments (especially during the later half) can be found here and there during the intros... Of the ten intros. The artwork is extremely beautiful though and is what the music should have been. I recommend the artist to overcharge the band for this.