“Do it yourself.” Does anyone in metal or music as a whole really “do it yourself?” And if someone really did (and excuse the improper tense) “do it yourself,” then they wouldn’t need the help of labels, press, and basically everyone else involved with getting an album off the ground. So, doing it yourself is really doing it with the help of others, but trying to look cool by saying you did it yourself. After all, no band has ever really gotten anywhere by doing it 100% themselves. And that goes for those smarmy indie rock bands…they’re so smug.

Probably the closest thing to a true DIY entity is Yayla main dude Emir Torgrul. Torgrul is responsible for not only the music, but the lyrics, artwork, label distribution and get this: the actual creation of the discs. Apparently, each copy of his Nihaihayat debut is handmade; Torgrul sprays the disc, and then cuts and inserts the prints for the jewel case and jacket. Basically, he does the whole thing himself. From scratch. He does it himself, from scratch. Imagine the long hours he puts in…dude must love coffee. Compounded with the fact he’s from Turkey, Nihaihayat takes an entirely different front than the usual Xasthur/Krieg one-man black metal outing.

As predictable as the album is in its sonic design (production on this is so 2004), Torgrul manages to place a hefty onus on mysterious dynamics, a lot of which start to click once “Through the Sigil of Hate” starts to gain footing. The riff attack is suitably blurry, as wry chords create what is the equivalent of a desert dust storm, all the while Torgrul mumbles like a monotonous drone. No emotion = total awesomeness. The real track to watch here, though, is “Immortalizing the Nine,” where upon morose riff combos merge with dirge-like funeral doom dalliances, making it one of the finer one-man BM strokes to hit the pavement of late.

Regardless of locale or how the damn thing was created (burning CD’s is such an arduous task to begin with), Nihaihayat should land on some uber cult and true black metal radars. If nothing else, it’s another quality entry into swathed-in-black, black metal.

[Visit the band's website]

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