NOUVEAU GLOAMING

"Nouveau Gloaming" is the debut full-length studio album by multinational experimental black metal act Code. "Nouveau Gloaming" was released through Spikefarm Records in June 2005. In addition to the "regular" CD version the album has also been released in two different vinyl formats/versions. One limited to 250 copies and another limited to 50 handnumbered copies.

The band features among others the prolific black metal musicians Kvohst (Mathew McNerney) on vocals (who has also been involved with Void and Dødheimsgard) and Viper (Yusaf "Vicotnik" Parvez) on bass and backing vocals, who is known for his involvement in Ved Buens Ende and Dødheimsgard. As far as I understand Code is predominantly guitarist Aort´s (Andy McIvor) baby though.

There are 8 tracks featured on the 53:54 minutes long album. The material is aggressive yet with a sense for melody and memorability which is mostly due to Kvohst´s diverse vocal delivery. His clean singing is intense and emotional in a dark and slightly monotone fashion while his raspy delivery sounds caustic and aggressive. There are some faster paced sections on the album but the tempo is mostly kept in mid-pace. This is certainly not your ultra fast blast beating kind of black metal album. Those who enjoy some of the above mentioned acts and their more twisted and experimental take on the black metal genre will probably find lots to like here. Maybe some will find it disrespectful if I say this but Code sounds a bit like Dødheimsgard "lite" to me (The "Supervillain Outcast (2007)" album. Without the samples though).

I would like to give a special mention to Viper´s bass playing on the album, because it´s something of a rarety that you can actually hear the bass in black metal. In this case it´s even very prominent and it´s greatly enjoyable to listen to some of Viper´s killer basslines. We´re not dealing with overtly technical playing but rather some melodic and clever basslines that enhance the listening experience. The music on the album isn´t overtly experimental and you´ll find many pretty straight forward parts. There´s a will to create original music and experiment with conventions here that I find admirable though. Another great feature on the album is Kvohst´s lyrics. As always they are quite bizarre and dark and they suit the music very well. If I have to make one complaint it´s probably that the tracks are at times a bit too lengthy for their own good, but it´s a minor complaint.

The sound production is professional, raw, and powerful, and it generally suits the music well. So upon conclusion Nouveau Gloaming is a good quality album by Code and while my rating isn´t a full 4 star (80%) rating but rather a 3.5 star (70%) rating, the album is quite the enjoyable audio journey and it´s definitely recommendable to fans of artists like Dødheimsgard, Void, Ved Buens Ende and Virus.