Now that Nachtmystium has exorcised the prog-rock/post-punk demons lurking deep within Blake Judd’s psyche—not to mention the frontman’s deep-seated love of Pink Floyd—with the two-part Black Meddle set, the band’s latest album is a return to its ravenous black-metal roots. “Damn over the Ruins of Jerusalem” welcomes a blitzkrieg of battering-ram beats, centrifugal chords, and what can only be described as downed power lines. Rude awakening aside, Silencing Machine isn’t a regressive two-steps-forward, two-steps-back record. Melodic and miserable in equal measure, it’s simply another notch in Nachtmystium’s winning streak over the past six years. And as vicious as this album is, the tracks are top notch, bursting at the seams with a crystal-clear mix and lavish guitar leads that bring to mind everything from prismatic shoegaze passages to Slash solos. Chaos is rarely this catchy.
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