Descending into a Deeper Darkness

Naxen - “Descending Into a Deeper Darkness” (2024)

Naxen
“Descending Into a Deeper Darkness”

Origin: Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Genre: Black Metal • Depressive Black Metal

Label: Vendetta Records

Some call it the “glass is half empty or full” metaphor. It labels one a pessimist if said glass is seen to be mostly empty, or is it just realism? Hope is in fact lost… Any hope for a bright future for the species is a fool’s dream! Dread encapsulates existence and life is merely post-birth trauma. I’d rather see things for how they are than to live in a fool’s paradise. Germany’s Naxen would agree…

Much like Poland’s Mgła, Naxen create black metal of a most dreadful variety: depressive, melancholy and misanthropic. No corpse paint, no spikes, only pitch black Germanic misery packaged within wretched albums like their sophomore, “Descending Into a Deeper Darkness” LP, released on May 3 via Vendetta.

Spiraling into a deep state of madness. The abyss gazes back and into the depths of where your innermost demons dare not. “Our Souls Shall Fall Forever”, like that moment when your heart sinks after finding out a loved one has died, but extended for minutes and set to mammoth blackened death riffs that give way to waking tremolo progressions. And up into a lightning split blackened azure we ascend - soaring melodic sequences the wind beneath our wings - only to be plummeted back aground and then deeper still into the pits of the subconscious mind as overbearing bass-heavy parts pummel you into fetal position - images of faces contorting with horror evoked - a song to track one’s descent into the mires of insanity… Be patient. The misery has only just begun.

A masterfully balanced contrast between what’s depressive and what’s dynamic achieved. This isn’t your typical dude sounds like he’s crying while listening to instrumental BM depressive black metal here. There’s a touch of the early 90’s stuff but mainly, “Descending Into a Deeper Darkness” is comparable to the output of fellow German contemporary black metal outfit, Krater, or, hate to drop their name again, the mighty Mgła. It’s in the energy: hate-fueled yet depressive, dreadful yet somehow uplifting. A patient approach to songwriting was obviously implemented here as well. There are blast-beats but they’re overlayed by somber melodies and there are rapid double-bass currents, but once again contrasted by the melancholy of it all. Epic! “A Shadow In the Fire, Pt. 3 (A Life Led By Loss)” - a tip of the cap to Wode and I’d say their 2016 self-titled debut: similar riffs and a redolent cavernous atmosphere. An expedition of an album cut that races, soothes, enchants and despairs.

Most definitely black metal of the world-class consort. Naxen proving to be a go-to black metal band as evidenced by their already stellar discography. Not your conventional hearty beer-swilling Germanic black metal, not much to even capture the German ethos even. This is transcendent black metal and its reach is intent upon the grasping of what the future holds for the genre and certainly not some “Transylvanian Hunger” worship. Vital, viable and a testament to the downfall of mankind.

The glass is half fucking empty… Hope is lost… Dread encapsulates existence… Life is merely post-birth trauma. Four truths that only those who are bold enough to see through the veil of lies can see. Four truths that only the strongest of men can actually embrace. The beauty of black metal and of dark art in general captured so eloquently here. To challenge one to walk through the darkness if only for a few moments and to embrace all the emotions attached to it. “Descending Into a Deeper Darkness” is a testament to the reality of beauty and even comfort within said darkness. A nice sojourn among the agonized, the weary and the doomed.

Experience “Descending Into a Deeper Darkness” by Naxen right here as presented by Black Metal Promotion:

https://youtu.be/oTbFFbSDWsk?si=I_S-4RauVhuUUaJD

~Jeger