French Black Metallers NOCTURNAL DEPRESSION  have been producing great music for the best part of eleven years, and already have five demos, six splits and a further six full length albums under their belts. Their latest release, "Spleen Black Metal", might just be one of their most impressive musical output to date. "Elegie" acts as a brief, but bold, opening statement. It's built around a slow, icy Black Metal riff, and turns into a song that moves forward at a relative dirge. This is the sort of classic Black Metal sound that many people will love; raw, but not to the point that it is unable to listened to anymore, and filled with some great, dark music. "L'Isolement", with its great opening guitar line, gives way to some really sharp Black Metal, with confident guitar playing and vicious, shrieking vocals. Just like the preceding track, it's a much more mid-paced affair, and is built around a nice, raw production.

"Acedie", the third offering on this record, opening on a great, tremolo picked guitar line, becomes one of the records best tracks. The music sounds tight and imaginative, and soaring vocals, all of which complement each other perfectly and make for an excellent overall sound. "Meditation Grisatre" is a great Black Metal track that utilizes Violin sections to add another layer of amazing hooks into the mix. These parts are used sparingly, but work very well when they are used. There's also some cleaner guitar lines used at points to break up the track, which work really well when they are brought in. We get a lot more of these cleaner tones on the following song, "Un Immense Desespoir", a song that, in its opening moments, sounds almost upbeat. When the track properly kicks in, however, with harsh Black Metal riffs blending with the cleaner leads, it becomes an oppressively dark song, with some interesting riffs and another great vocal performance. The atmosphere of the track also helps to make this particular song fantastic. "Remords Posthume",  the albums penultimate track, is a monolithic piece of atmosphere-laden Black Metal. It makes great use of cleaner tones again at various points, coupled with some harrowing screams that contrasts the softer edge of the music here. It's a great track which incorporates plenty of the various elements that we've come to expect from the band throughout the record. The albums titular track, "Spleen Black Metal", is a slow, melancholic slab of raw Black Metal. This song also treats the listener to some more Violin pieces, which again work very well with the music and add a few additional hooks to keep it interesting. It's a great way to close this album.

This is a great record, which will most likely please both old and new fans alike. This has some really well thought out, imaginative music on it, and as a result, I think this could end up being a major landmark in the bands catalog. This album has songs within it that have the potential to become fan favorites, maybe even cornerstones of their live repertoire for years to come. It's dark, brooding and memorable, and there isn't a dull song on here. I'd certainly recommend this if you like your Black Metal raw and depressive.<