Nächtlich: Third Ritual Album Review!

Nächtlich album artwork for Third Ritual

Nächtlich Review:

Nächtlich is one of the most prolific raw black metal outfits currently operating out of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Nächtlich is German for nocturnal and rightfully so for this evil blackened entity permeating the underground black metal scene.

Despite their full-length Satanas Solum Initium Est on Black Gangrene Productions in 2021, which sees the band take a different stripped-down approach, I decided to focus on this EP released in 2018. Most recently the band has reprinted Third Ritual with several different labels including Poland’s Inferna Profundus Records. I wanted to focus on Third Ritual because it was my first real exposure to the band and quite arguably their most distributed EP release.

Operated under the soulless evil force of Ukeparaave whom you can locate on Instagram with all and everything about Nächtlich. Ukeparaave has also called on another diabolic force known as Gamzhurn on their full-length Satanas Solum Initium Est.

Third Ritual is a follow up to A Second Ritual of Night Worship released in 2017. With Third Ritual you can expect gloomy transfixed synth passages laced with the rawest mid-paced chugging black metal. Much care has been taken on Third Ritual to provide listeners with only the grimmest lo-fi black metal experience. A love letter to the days of early nineties rawness and only the evillest sounding black metal from the Canadian underground.

The vocals are demon possessed, screeches and howls from the blackest abyss. You get this raw sound and atmosphere and then you’re dropped in a maze of mesmerizing synth passages. It’s a style that blends beautifully together if you are a connoisseur of such niche filth. Third Ritual contains five tracks running 23 minutes 27 seconds. It’s an EP I listen to frequently for its addictive and sinister dirges.

The opener A Frozen Moor sets this dark moody tone until Orthanc cuts in with a raw assault of guitars, drums, and those raspy vocals. Complimented by screams akin to a pack of howling wolves thirsting for your blood. Solitude of Coffin Intrusion is a synthy moody track mixing the best of both worlds, doom, gloom, and rawness. Resolute is a synth track draped in a cloak of mystique taking the listener into the final assault with the track Starsight of the Outer Regions.

If you are searching for only the most obscure evil raw blackness put to music then Third Ritual is your jam. I highly recommend anything by Nächtlich as they other a plethora of demos, splits, and EPs. Explore the evil uncompromising world of Canada’s rawest and blackest obscure apparition, behold Nächtlich.

Album Info:

Band: Nächtlich
Album: Third Ritual
Members: Ukeparaave Enviavuasan
Year: 2018
Country: Canada
Runtime: 23min 27sec
Label: Knife Vision