Day: April 8, 2022

Whenever you have to talk about music from Ukraine you are pervaded by a sense of inadequacy, with the thought that runs to what is happening in that land tortured by the absurdity of war. Obviously also this work of Nonsun had an earlier genesis but, as stated by the band itself, a title like Blood & Spirit seems to prove prophetic, even if the primary meaning refers to the contradictions and discomforts of the individual in front of the inexhaustible questions that existence poses daily. Compared to the previous and convincing Black Snow Desert, in which a drone sludge predominance brought back to names like Sunn O)))) and Earth, in this new work the sound is more linear and moved towards the doom, letting vent the powerful riffing without indulging too long on the disturbed frequencies of drone. Even a greater synthesis favors the enjoyment of this remarkable return of Nonsun, since its duration of just over fifty minutes distributed along five tracks is almost halved compared to the previous album. Blood & Spirit can be defined as instrumental even if it is possible to hear sometimes, along its flow, voices that are not intended to declaim texts but have the function of mere accompaniment; on the other hand, this type of solution proves very effective to give further variations to the procession, however, never trivial, an effective sound compartment. If the two initial tracks, A Wizard Grieving Over the Loss of Magic and That Which Does Not Kill, express a sludge doom of great compactness and flow convincingly without particular digressions, starting from the next Days of Thunder Bring New Wisdom returns to peep that compositional restlessness highlighted in the past that is accentuated in the next in Guilt, Disgust, Disaster, marked by a central phase in which the saxophone makes its appearance, while an elegant and melodic guitar work makes its way, mottled only at times by a riffing of rare heaviness. The album closes with In Your Eyes I’m a Cripple, the most experimental song, but not in such a way as to be brainy, thanks also to a second part marked by a frenetic crescendo. Blood & Spirit confirms the goodness of Nonsun, whose level reached in this sector has little to envy to the most celebrated American and European bands.

2022 – Dunk! Records