NATTEHIMMEL is a Black Metal band from Norway, formed in 2022. From their EPK, "It's the moment just after the tree-root thick tangle of guitars come in and the luminous clean vocals light up the sky while the keyboards suddenly shine from below: when the singing enters on the first track, one might actually hear a continuation from IN THE WOODs legendary "Omnio" album from 1997. None of the five members are strangers to one another, having met before in previous bands. "Mourningstar" is the band's debut album, and it has nine songs.

The title track is the first. It's a short, mood-setting instrumental, leading to "Astrologer." It's dark offering with a slow pace and clean vocals that segue into harsh ones. There is a good deal of melody here as well. It's really only Black Metal in the sense of the harsh vocals...the cleans make it sound more Gothic-tinged. "Each Man a Constellation" has a similar, depressive sound that alternates with passages of intense rage. So far, the first two songs sound very much alike. "Armies of Tiamat" presents a similar sound. Tiamat was a primordial goddess of the sea, mating with Abzû, the god of the groundwater, to produce younger gods. She is the symbol of the chaos of primordial creation.

"Slay the Shepherd" begins with tense, dark tones that lead to a heavy riff and more clean vocals. There are also some moments of melody, but they are overtaken by black clouds of death. "Mountain of the Northern Kings" opens with eerie keyboard notes. The harmonized clean vocals drip with depressive tones, while the harsh tones lash out in anger. "Realm of Hades" has a little more of a traditional NWOBHM riff, combined again with melancholy clean vocals. The little bits of melody in this song are bright and shiny. "The Immortals" has a more traditional Black Metal riff, and the clean vocals don't really sound like they belong. They are also quite pitchy.

"The Nightsky Beckons" closes the album, with more out of place clean vocals. Although the title points to some haste, the sound is hopeless, leaving you no motivation to get up and do anything. Overall, this wasn't a bad album per se but many of the songs sounded very similar. The clean vocals also just sounded out of place with much of the music. I wasn't even sure that I was listening to Black Metal.