Day: September 3, 2017

Our life can be defined in many ways, and it can be lived in very different ways. First of all, we need to understand what the concept of life itself is, which is perhaps taken too much for granted, because confident and demanding about its unfolding we try to deny the gulf that is created between our life and our soul, that is, what we really are. Living this sharp divide, disasters are just around the corner, and the choices left to us are not many. Thrown at breakneck speed into a life that is not what we would like, we try in most cases to stay on track, sacrificing our unconscious and much else to get a reinforcement of trust and recognition from others, to try to show that we are capable of doing something, or that we are worthy of life, itself a lie. And we think we have saved ourselves, but instead we are sinking, sinking lower and lower, and like in a swamp the more we struggle the more lethal the grip becomes. Damnation is within us, and this Nibiru record is a song of despair, four pieces of fabric torn by damnation, a lacerating cry of a lost soul, as they say. The record represents substantial changes in the Turin-based band’s poetics, as Qaal Babalon is defined by the group as the follow-up to their first record Caosgon, released in 2013 and recently reissued with bonuses by Argonauta Records. Caosgon was a venomous mist expanding from the stereo speakers of unwary and damned souls, composed of distorted and ritualistic psychedelia, rotten and death-bringing. Qaal Babalon is the sublimation of that concept, a remarkable advance in sound quality and composition for a band that takes on a different form with every listen and every gig. Remaining as a trio after Steve Siatris’ departure from the group, Nibiru have thus conceptually returned to their roots, while adding much to what Caosgon had been. The four tracks are as many rituals, four offerings to the true gods, dilated with cycles and recycles, which attach the listener to the sound source. Listening to Qaal Babalon one can hear a clean break from what Padmalotus had been, a very different record from the latter, which had hinted at a stylistic change later rejected with Siatris’ departure from the group. Qaal Babalon is much more than a musical record, it is an acknowledgement and exploration of our abysses, an escape from false values and false masks, to search for who we really are. The sound system is majestic and magnificent, the sounds are very well produced, and Nibiru‘s laceration is declined, an absolute novelty, not only in Enochian but also in Italian, and this is really an added value, as it renders a great deal in Qaal Babalon. Nibiru have always had a very particular and utterly personal path, and here they reach their zenith, giving the impression that this is only the beginning of something terribly damnable and fascinating, as this record is really a remarkable leap forward in a career that is far above average. As always, Nibiru offer us a sonic experience that is difficult to describe in words, but it has to be said that on this occasion they have really gone beyond that, giving us an absolute and almost unique piece of evidence. (M.Argo – MetalEyes 3/9/2017)

2017 – Argonauta Records