NAHTRUNAR are a Black metal independent band from Austria. "Symbolismus" is their debut album, after a self-named demo released in 2013. This album is dedicated to the nights at the turn of the year, named "RAUHNACHTE" that are known as the time in which the portal to the netherworld is wide open, and so spirits are awakened and old gods are to walk freely among mortal man. Their work is mainly characterized by hard stumping guitars and drums to support it like we are used to hear in Black metal, but also more melodic parts.

The album opens up with a hardcore song by the name "Auf Totenritt Durch Innerachte". Following it is one of four soft melodic parts, numbered without a name. Those melodic tracks, along with other parts of the album are what give this album the scent of soft yet hardcore Melodic Black metal. All those words together are somewhat of an oxymoron, but for them it doesn't make the slightest difference. For example, the third song "Wir Leichenvogel" is very heavy up till the solo that slowly turns into something soft, calm and even somehow sad.

The vocals all throughout the album are blurry and screamish like used in Black metal, the drums are fast and there's a lot of usage in cymbals, like used in Black metal, and of course the guitars are heavily distorted, but not for all times. In many parts, and even in the middle of the heaviest of songs you can hear underneath the drums solos that seems to be taken from other bands that are more related to the Gothic genre, or even sometimes the Heavy metal ones.

The album itself carries a scent of destruction, of war and doom. I do believe that is what NAHTRUNAR tried to pass on in their music, and they were able to do so. I am saying that even without understanding the lyrics, not for one bit. This feeling is given mostly by their great usage of the transitions in between the songs, making this album a piece of true Melodic Black metal. I hope that is what they tried to achieve with their music, because if so it worked wonderfully. They have some more work to do in order to get their sound just right, but NAHTRUNAR are defiantly on the right way there.