NACHTBLUT takes listeners on a sonic journey that evokes the imagination and stirs the soul. Each song is an act of artistic creation that opens up a conversation between the creators and those immersed in the experience. In the end, the interpretation of this experience is ultimately left in the hands of the audience. Hope and dreams may spring from within one enrapturing song, while another more fearsome song can be dread-inducing, impaling the soul while leaving a shard of itself deep within.

The embers that have been steadily burning since 2005 from the German Gothic Metal band, NACHTBLUT have become a conflagration of fire and flame. Vanitas, their sixth studio album is a maelstrom of dark musical styles that expand and contract with the atmosphere created within every song. With Vanitas sung entirely in NACHTBLUT’s native tongue you’ll be hard-pressed to find lyrics translated into English. Through the convenience of Google Translate, non-German speakers can easily gain access to Askeroth’s imaginative lyricism albeit a rough translation, throughout the album.

Unlike the predominately straight-forward march of most traditional German Industrial Metal bands, NACHTBLUT blends their influences seamlessly into a melodious concoction of Black Metal, Folk, and Gothic/Industrial. As the foreboding ambiance of the opening track “Veritas” methodically leads us into “Varitas”, the album’s title track, a Gothic choir fuels the madness behind guitarist, Greif’s pummeling riffs. Every composition on Vanitas launches you forward through a foreboding hall as every compelling step leads into a doorway that is a theatre all it’s own.

“Das Puppenhaus” is the soundtrack to the nightmare that paralyzes your every movement. “Leierkinder” takes a drastic departure into Folk Metal territory but doesn’t lose it’s crushing ferocity. Both “Schmerz & Leid” (feat. Chris Harms) and “Nur In Der Nacht” are unapologetically influenced by 80’s Gothic/Industrial while “Fürchtet Was Geschrieben Steht” is a beast that is as triumphant as it is monstrous.

With time, all paintings fade and crack but true works of art not only stand the test of time but also inspire introspection. Vanitas is inherently complex in its lyricism and composition while remaining brutally unrelenting in it’s delivery. For those that haven’t explored the darkened corners of German Gothic Metal, NACHTBLUT is sure to open your mind and lead you to strange new places within previously unexplored.

As always, be well and rock on!     Hunnypot Approved!     Overall Rating:  8.8 out of 10

Artist:  NACHTBLUT  LP: Vanitas,   Release Date: October 2nd, 2020,   Label: Napalm Records