You know you’ve got a chuckle fest on your hands when an EP opens with samples from Darren Aronofsky’s movie, Requiem for a Dream (just save yourself some time and watch a few baby seals being clubbed to death: same effect.) And so it proves to be the case with Resilient (Prophecy), the four-track comeback release from Black Metal happy campers Nachtmystium.

The title track blasts in with some force. “Too selfish to die” rasps lead man Blake Judd, as the song laments an ongoing cycle of defeat, survival, and the nihilistic cruelty of hope. (He’s done his homework.) Resilient howls and haunts like the perfect combination of Black Metal and Doom via some seriously dodgy psychedelia helped along no end by the keyboards of Martin van Valkenstijn and some suitably bleak solos. It compels and despairs in equal measure.

‘Silver Lanterns’ pounces in straight after with a more up-tempo but still fatalistically grim vibe. It helps that song is built on a strong foundation of beats and bass lines which add an odd, almost heavy alt. rock vibe which contrasts well with all the Black Metal shrieking.

Finally, ‘Desert Illumination’ somehow manages to combine bongos, spaced out Prog Rock and shredding Black Metal in a way that, surprisingly enough, works rather well. It concludes with melancholy Prog once more… perhaps that’s how it ends for us all… Screams, sadness, strangeness. A fade out.

Eagle-eyed readers will no doubt note that I’ve not really mentioned Blake Judd’s – shall we say – controversial behaviour yet. I’m not going to. It’s not up to him, after all, if he gets a second chance, but you. On its own, of course, Resilient is a finely tuned little package of shrieking darkness and pain. Whether that justifies a redemption arc is another matter altogether.

7 / 10

ALEXANDER HAY