Settling in with Nuclear Blast after a dozen years on the sidelines, Nailed To Obscurity, a German band releasing its fourth studio effort entitled Black Frost, is back on the market. The quintet’s signature formula is the now familiar one of progressive melodic death metal with dark doom atmospheres, here exhibited in one of its most convincing guises. Nailed To Obscurity, needless to deny it, are inspired by Opeth and Katatonia, injecting into their sound moments of poetic doom reminiscent of My Dying Bride and at times pushing on the accelerator trespassing into melodic death metal. This is the starting point for a listen to this new Black Frost, which, if it shows limits in personality, will certainly satisfy fans of the genre, with a good hour of dark and melancholic, harsh and romantic sounds and atmospheres, perfectly handled throughout the entire album. Between sounds and arrangements on the shields, the good Raimund Ennenga rises to the top with a varied and excellent performance in both extreme and clean tones, interpreting a batch of songs that, between mighty death parts, atmospheric and dilated dark moments and progressively intense stretches, carry with them echoes of the gothic doom works of the early 1990s. An album like Black Frost, despite being obviously derivative, remains in any case a highly recommended listen for lovers of a genre that always manages to strike the right emotional chords; thus, while in tracks like the title track, Feardom, Cipher or Road To Perdition the influences and a certain mannerism tend to surface more, the beauty of this collection of tracks, its dark melancholy and touching doom/dark melodies make the album worthy of the utmost attention.

2019 – Nailed To Obscurity