Although it is a band active for over a decade, and even since the last century if we consider its previous incarnation called Dark Souls, the Hungarian Nadir I think they are emeriti unknown in our parts. Perhaps their particular form of death doom contaminated by sludge and metalcore impulses will not represent something epochal, but certainly does not deserve to be completely ignored. In fact, The Sixth Extinction, which is the seventh full length released with the current moniker, immediately reveals the work of a band of great depth, composed of musicians who have always under control the development of the sound, often sufficiently attractive and melodically never obvious, as demonstrated for example by a masterful track as Fragmented, capable of marking in an important way the first part of the work. I say this because, immediately after the massive Mountains Mourn, comes to life the trilogy Ice Age In The Immediate Future (inspired by the drama The Tragedy Of Man, composed by the Magyar writer Imre Madach in the mid-nineteenth century) that shifts the coordinates of the sound towards something more elaborate, even if the catchy imprint of Nadir‘s sound never fails, with even the third part, A Matter Of Survival, which takes on very pressing rhythms before plummeting shortly after half a song in a slow and distorted pace. The beautiful instrumental Les Ruines, finally, exhibits explicitly the compositional qualities of this excellent band, which stages a final track solemn and evocative at the same time, thanks to a beautiful guitar melody that dilutes in several parts of the noise on which rests a recitative in French. Considering also that The Sixth Extinction, a work full of insights that are not too diluted within a duration of just over half an hour, is conceptually linked to its predecessor Ventum Iam Ad Finem Est, it may be worthwhile to deepen the knowledge with this band harbinger of an interpretation of death doom certainly not trivial.

2017 – NGC Prod