NAZXUL: Iconoclast

Released: July 2009

The dark masters of Australian black metal rise once more with the long-foretold Iconoclast. In spite of long bouts of inactivity, member changes and the tragic loss of their guitarist on the eve of the album's completion, this is everything that was promised it would be.

For those not familiar with the inner workings of the band, the booklet offers no insight. There's no recording credits, no member details, no liner notes of any kind, only lyrics, some iconography, and a dull photo of six hooded figures. Individual identity has no place in the ideology of Nazxul: the band is an entity unto itself. So it is then that despite half the band being replaced (some members more than once) since the monumental "Black Seed" EP, nothing about their vision has changed. Iconoclast takes up directly where that recording left off, a portentous, epic slab of soul-scarring symphonic black metal.

Over the decade since "Black Seed", this form of music has been gradually diluted through the auspices of Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir into realms of near-commercial acceptance, but Iconoclast is true to its name, pandering to no trend but its own. After the dark, ominous strings of "Apoptosis", Nazxul unleashes the hellish fury of "Dargon Dispitous", evoking the kind of cold, barbaric atmosphere of early Emperor. While the tremolo-picking sets-to with a fury, the drumming sets a steady, almost ponderous pace that builds an aestethic of epicness. The vocals are like curses, delivered in croaks and hoarse, icy near-whispers. Melody comes from the keyboards, massive and prominent, yet balanced, neither drowning the savage fury of the guitars nor surrending to them.

"Set in Array" marks the true flowering of Nazxul's symphonic intentions, enhancing its violence with string orchestration. In "Symbol of Night & Winter" the keys pull back a little from the chugging metal riffs until the grand "Oath (Fides Resurrectio)" enters the picture. A solemn and haunting track, "Oath" rolls out in slow majesty as a high point to stand alongside the inimitable "Vow of Vengeance", a masterpiece on a meisterwerk. The album closes with the sinister snarling vocal and surging riffs of "World Oblivion" as The Great Dragon finally arises and engulfs the universe, leaving only the dark atmospheric finale of "Threnody".

Iconoclast is a prodigious and oppressive album of lingering malevolence, the logical consummation of Nazxul's existence to this point.

1. Apoptosis
2. Dragon Dispitous
3. III
4. Black Wings
5. V
6. Iconoclast
7. I
8. Set in Array
9. II
10. Symbol of Night & Winter (Ancient Lords)
11. Oath (Fides Resurrectio)
12. Stain of Harrow
13. World Oblivion
14. Threnody

Rating: 96%