Just because you are a French black metal act, have your songs in Latin and French, have ambient intros, outros and 8 minute songs, does not make you the next Deathspell Omega. And when your style is actually a more straightforward ‘wall of noise’ black metal in line with Marduk and Dark Funeral, the 6-8 minute songs become very tedious (even when there’s only four of them.)

OK, with all that negativity aside, I should state that Nyseius are not that bad — they are competently scathing, just generically and forgetfully so. Then compress that with a sea of recent generic and forgetful black metal (that’s come out recently) and you get a recipe for negativity…

Fans of no frills, well produced black metal will eat this up, even with a few piece meal moments of ambience and restraint (“Ibi Deficit Orbis”, “Sibro Ticifet Ibi”), as it delivers militant and fervent, seething tremolo picked riffs and feral rasps abound. But none of them stick or stand out — a fact further highlighted by the length of the songs. The likes of “ Militiae”, “Les Symboles De La Catharsis” and “Lueur d’une Lune Morte” seem to go on forever and blast with little variety of pacing between tracks, so “Endless March” becomes a very fitting track name.

If you are simply a blasting black metal addict and like your black metal straight up, Nyseius will fit the bill, but you could do so much better.

[Visit the band's website]

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