Assassins: Black Meddle Part I, the first chapter in Nachtmystium’s post-black metal transformation, was aptly named in that it mashed up Floydian psychedelia with the band’s gritty, scuzzy and vaguely punk brand of USBM. When I reviewed the album two years ago, I latched more onto the rippling, expansive sections than the fiercer black-punk explosions (go back and listen to the second half of the title track again), hoping that Assassins’ follow-up would push further into those dimensions of the mind.

Turns out that Blake Judd got most of that experimental ambience out of his system with the new Twilight release (which, at times, actually went too far with that exploration). And so with Addicts: Black Meddle Part II, Nachtmystium is free to mutate again. This time, it’s in a surprisingly different direction, and after establishing a black metal baseline (or, at least as close to it as you’re going to get on Addicts) with “High on Hate,” Judd and company reveal their latest inspiration: early 80’s post-punk.

“Nightfall” sports a snappy backbeat, pulsing bass line, choppy, staccato guitars and a clean-sung chorus. In fact, if you removed Judd’s rasped vocals, you’d be left with something not out of place on a Gang of Four album, or more recently, Franz Ferdinand or The Killers. “No Funeral” further cements the new direction with a Sisters of Mercy/darkwave synth line and steady, lunging dance beat, and although the song isn’t varied enough over its 5-minute length, it still works as a concept.

Now, those two descriptions alone are probably enough to send the purists screaming down to their basements (presumably to smash up their copies of Eulogy IV and Instinct: Decay), but for the rest of you still interested, there are only two more overtly post-punk moments on the album. One is the title track, with a twangy Cure melody and cogent, even singable chorus. The other, “Ruined Life Continuum,” comes late on the disc, and even with its upbeat rhythmic stomp, it’s the most atmospheric of the hybrid tracks.

As for the remainder of the disc, they’re mostly grinding, blackened dirges, similar to things we’ve already heard from Nachtmystium, except that Addicts‘ versions offer more melodic choruses, even with Judd’s hoarse delivery. They’re all solid tracks, though I do find that “The End is Eternal” weighs the center of the album down with its discordant meandering and strange, chirping electronic motif. Since “Eternal” is lodged between a series of other mid-tempo tracks – “Then Fires,” “Addicts” and “Blood Trance Fusion” – it really should have been something much faster or energetic to break up the drone. The second half of “Blood Trance Fusion” does pick up the pace again, but that crescendo needed to happen earlier. Then again, by this point it’s clear Addicts is not going to be as aggressive and sprawling as Assassins, so perhaps the restraint and misery is appropriate. Finally, there’s the hypnotic album closer “Every Last Drop,” which moves back towards ambient psychedelia with its mix of acoustic and slide guitars, slithery, squelchy FX and a soaring guest vocal appearance by Bruce Lamont of Yakuza.

As with Assassins, it seems that the band didn’t fully commit to their experiment, as less than half of Addicts can really be considered post-punk. But when they do embrace that concept, Nachtmystium moves far enough from traditional black metal that it’s more like a post-punk band dabbling with a blacker palette than the other way around. And you know, that doesn’t bother me at all. Addicts is far more interesting than their earlier albums, when Nachtmystium seemed like just another scraping, nihilistic USBM outfit. And truth be told, the genre needs forward-thinking artists like this to continue pushing at the boundaries and experimenting with rebirth — even if means pissing off the purists in the process.

Can’t wait to see what these guys do for Part III.

[ A second opinion of the album is available here. – Ed. ]

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