Band:	Autumn Nostalgie
Album:	Metanoia
Style:	Ambient, Post black metal
Release date:	June 06, 2025
A review by:	AndyMetalFreak

01. Introduction
02. Return To Nowhere
03. Shrouded By Fading Years
04. Interludium
05. Metanoia
06. Remain In The Depths Of Blind Darkness
07. Silent Gravestones
08. There Is Still Snow, Hypomanie

Summer has barely begun, and already I'm feeling like autumn has arrived when listening to Metanoia.

Autumn Nostalgie is a post-black solo project formed in the Slovak Republic by Almásy Gergely (A.G.), and is a spawn of A.G.'s former project Fekete Erdő. Despite being established back in 2010, it wouldn't be until a decade later that the full-length debut Esse Est Percipi arrived. This was followed a year later by the sophomore Ataraxia, and both albums received a positive reception from critics and fans of the niche blackgaze/post-black style alike. Now A.G. returns to the scene after 4 years, hoping to build on those two releases with his third full-length effort.

Metanoia follows more or less the same principle as the two albums before it, that being mostly blackgaze with elements of post-metal and occasional ambience. The themes are once again metaphorical and thought-provoking, with the lyrical content being personal to A.G. himself, but open to interpretation by the listener. It's an album with deep emotional impact, but little or no distraction is required in order to reap the rewards.

Following a brief minute-long ambient intro conveniently titled "Introduction" comes "Return to Nowhere", a song that immediately establishes the blackgaze style of the album; it delivers a style that is common to one-man projects in this niche, but it's a very effective musical approach for releasing and sharing one's inner spirituality. From here on, the album flows almost continually at a steady tempo through entrancing tremolos and uplifting melodic leads, with pummelling drums and pulsating bass mixed just in behind the guitars and tortuous agonizing shrieks.

There isn't a huge variation between each song and the song structures are kept relatively simple; this seems intentional, to allow one's mind to become subdued by the repetitive rhythm and semi-melodic tremolos, becoming one with the music. However, you can feel like there is no end during the build-ups, as if in a hypnotic dreamlike state; "Silent Gravestones", for instance, feels like it goes on for an eternity, yet it's only 7 minutes long.

The song structures throughout Metanoia are on the more simplistic and repetitive side, sacrificing variety in favour of greater emotional weight. This follows a similar pattern to many other post-black solo projects such as Karg, Anomalie, and Woods Of Desolation, and although Autumn Nostalgie might not be as well known as others in this category, A.G. has shown he's just as much of an accomplished musician as any of them. I don't believe Metanoia quite reaches the heights of his previous work in terms of songwriting quality, nor does it break any new ground in terms of originality, but it might just give you that emotional fix you've been perhaps craving.