As Black Metal evolved since the coming of the Second Wave of the genre, many different musical ways appeared and the genre became fracted. It’s not a bad thing, because a genre gains musical diversity in this way; but there are those who wants to keep things in the classic ways as they can - what’s not a mistake as well. And in this sense - as classic as it can be - comes the Italian one-man band NORDHEIM comes with “Nordheim”. The sonority - as expected after reading the words above - is raw and filled with that ‘lo-fi aesthetics’ of the past, but without exaggerations on the filth approach and on the ‘frying-potatoes’ tunes on the guitars, what means that one can understand what’s being played.

It’s clear that such sonority has a deeper appeal to older fans of Black Metal, but younger generations will have problems to deal with it. Radok - the only member of the band - focuses his musical efforts on a form of Old School Black Metal derived from the classic outfits used on the 90s, in a mix between something simple and aggressive, but filled with melancholic/darkened ambiences. Again: for younger fans, it can be hard to deal with, but to those who saw the rise of the Second Wave of Black Metal on 1993-1994, it’s easy to deal with “Nordheim”.

“Spina de Mùl” and “Ey de Nét” are both very long songs with a simple technical approach - but with sinister and darkened ambiences and with some very simple (yet good) rhythmic shifts. “Moos I” follows the same recipe, just being a bit shorter than the previous song (just seven minutes), and has a more classic Black Metal outfit (with contrasts between shrieks and normal tunes on the vocals). These three songs will have a deep and strong appeal for older Black Metal fans, the public that the band is targeting.

“Nordheim” is a very good release, but Radok should think about using shorter times in the future. For now, NORDHEIM did a very good work.