██████ – Demo

January 15, 2013 • self-released

I won't say we've reached a limit as far as silly band names go, but ██████ (or "nic" if you prefer) is pushing the limit for sure. Fortunately their music makes up for the ridiculousness there, as their demo showcases some surprisingly good modern black metal that, while isn't terribly original, is definitely enjoyable.

My first impressions of this demo was that, despite the band being Czech, there's many similarities to the atmosphere of "Cascadian" United States bands, combined with the intensity and rawness heard often in lower European bands. It's a neat combination; the music is often very melodic but when it's not building up with clean, post-rock-ish sections, it's raging with the blastbeats and tremolo guitars standard to the genre, along with some incredibly tortured screams.

But as I said before it's not terribly original stuff—black metal bands are a dime a dozen, and while this one happens to be pretty good at what they do, this sort of songwriting is just a touch lazy and they're going to need to step it up for future releases. That being said, this is still pretty solid, and is satisfying in its own way; worth a listen for sure.

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