Tides of Despair

Nocturnal Depression, the veterans of the french DSBM scene return in November of 2019 with their ninth full length album. But it is an important album for the band for two reasons. Firstly, Herr Suizid, one of the two founding members, returns to the band after five years of absence. Secondly, this an album with new compositions by the band, not just a rerecording of old material as “Deathcade” was. So i was really curious to see how things are going for the band in their new effort, “Tides of Despair” which contains eight tracks, an intro, an outro and six Black Metal compositions, with overall duration of about forty-three minutes.

The first thing i noticed was the cover, which reminded me the style and feeling of their “Four Seasons to a Depression” cover. Does the band want to go back to their roots? Do they want to express something similar to that period? I guess that every fan of Nocturnal Depression would admit that they are not a band of change. They have managed to form their style and slowly evolve it release by release, trying to express their feelings the most passionate and emotional way. The resemblance to the aforementioned album that I noticed, of course is the melancholic – depressing feeling of the band, that thing will never change, but also the strong bond with nature. The symbolism between human personality, sentiments or even life with the sea or with seasons (as before). In this release too, the band wants to offer a journey to the listener through all stages of a melancholic soul, the peace, the sweet melancholy, the depression, the frenzy and finally the peace again. Their lyrics have also that cyclical approach, starting with the melancholic, romantic “Tides of Despair” and moving fast to more depressive themes with “Living in a Mass Grave” and “Solitude and Despair Again”, leading to the violent scenery with “Slit My Wrists”, until they reach again a more peaceful state of mind expressing their romantic melancholy with “Farewell Letter” and “Muse of Suicide”.

Musically, the band hasn’t changed anything. That may sound negative, but it is not. There is a specific element that a fan of Nocturnal Depression likes about them and that is their emotional and romantic approach to express negative or depressing feelings and that you are going to find in this album too. The instruments are all played in a very professional but sentimental way, delivering the images and feelings to the listener, perfectly. The songs last from four to eight minutes and their structure is good, maintaining the interest of the listener. The guest artists offer a nice variety for the vocals but i would also like to see them experimenting with other instruments as the cello, the piano or the violin more extensively. The production is clean and warm making that romantic feeling more intense. The mixture is balanced, highlighting the guitars and the vocals as they are the means of expression of the band and the overall result is really good, making you to overlook the lifeless, almost bland drums.

In conclusion, i can say that Nocturnal Depression’s reunion was successful. I can see that the band is not taking risks by experimenting with new instruments or sounds, nevertheless i appreciate that they respect the legacy of the band. The album manages to meet the expectations of their fans and making another step into the path of their slow but steady evolution. This album will be surely appreciated by the fans of the band and renew their interest in them but also this is a very nice chance for those of you who are not already familiar with their music, to get to know them.