Nokturnal Mortum: Return of the Vampire Lord/Marble Moon (2001)

It feels like I am starting a lot of posts recently with a line about how so-and-so is a black metal band that I have long heard good things about but only recently checked out.  And so it is with Nokturnal Mortum.  Now, there is a pretty good reason for that.  And here we get into the next most-frequently used line about how this black metal band had NS ties at one point.  That is true of Nokturnal Mortum who were fairly anti-Semitic at one point in time, and this release came out during this time, though I cannot find any particularly offensive moments in the music.  The band has since distanced themselves from this ideology. 

As I said, this was released during Nokturnal Mortum's controversial phase.  Well, not much I can do about that now.  As usual, I am just here for the music.  This was a compilation that collected together two of Nokturnal Mortum's EPs (hence the two titles), both of which were released in 1997.  It also features cover songs from two more very controversial black metal bands: Burzum and Graveland.

The album kicks off with the absolutely amazing "Return of the Vampire Lord", the high point on the entire release.  It is a lengthy song but features some spell-binding melodies and terrific interplay between the guitar-driven riffs and usage of synths to carry the melody.  And though it is over eleven minutes long, it never drags.  The next two tracks are also off of the Return of the Vampire Lord EP.  Those tracks are decent, but not nearly as good as the first one.

Next is the Marble Moon EP.  This one finds Nokturnal Mortum tightening up their sound and never indulging in the kind of lengthy epics like "Return of the Vampire Lord".  In addition, this is much more of a rarities kind of collection with several demo versions, three instrumental tracks (including two under three minutes in length) and a cover of a Death SS song.  The short instrumentals feel very out of place and sound like rejected tracks from a Finntroll or Korpiklaani release.  They are far too upbeat and bouncy, and simply do not fit in with the rest of the release.  Unfortunately the result in all of this is that the Marble Moon tracks feel like filler rather than a real release.

This is a very uneven release.  "Return of the Vampire Lord" is an excellent look at how good Nokturnal Mortum can be, but much of the rest of the album fails to live up to the immediate high point.  That is very unfortunate.  I doubt that I have heard the best this band has to offer, so I will refrain from writing them off after this.