Night of the World – Drive the Knife Deeper
Despite best efforts, some days just begin with a crawl, and on those days, nothing seems capable of awakening the senses. The shock of cold sink water on your face wears off too quickly, and your eyes narrow shut once again. Your third cup of coffee, while inspiring a colon cleansing, fails to deliver enough caffeine to lift your lids. On mornings such as these, one might instead reach for unrelenting Polish Black/Thrash for an overdose of hammering, hate-laden filth guaranteed to defibrillate any darkened heart into action. In 2013, Drive the Knife Deeper by new band Night of the World will suffice as your fructose-laden cereal replacement. No long, ‘creepy’ intros, no mild nudging of you into the abyss – oh no, not here. Night of the World get right to the point with the snare drum-flagellating ‘Throatcrush’, a song accurately foreshadowing the rifftastic barbarity of the music their debut contains. Power chords played in a frenzy are mated with speed-picked/palm-muted rampages, steeling across the fretboard in a bleached frenzy that have the band constantly straddling the line between raw Black Metal and Thrash. But this is Black Metal first and foremost, make no mistake; the insanely fast and impressive drumwork with its speed and punk-like production, the requisite but well-placed tritones, the evil electronics, and most of all, the voice of Namtar (also of Massemord) that comes across as a shoutier, more enunciated Arioch/Mortuus. And while this album mostly matches the pace of Marduk, later, once you are fully petrified and paying attention, shifts in tempo and tone do occur and are welcome for it. The boulder-heavy lurch of ‘Drive the Knife or Yourself Deeper’s second-half, replete with its simple but strong keys and Herculean riffery, painfully drags you by the ear to a lumbering end. And closing track ‘The Serpent Within’s bizarre space-riff , while veering between Voivod and surfpunk, nevertheless remains intense throughout, sincere in its admonition for you to ‘dare to worship him’. Better than any over-the-counter meth ingredient, Night of the World will give you a morning boost of BM at an efficacy level hucksters behind Five Hour Energy couldn’t even conceive of. -Jim
Folter Records
Worm Gear 