Nazxul: Nazxul (1994)

Australia is one of my favorite countries for metal.  I have made no secret about that over the years.  Much of this is due to the blackened thrash metal scene often referred to as "war metal", but they have had some truly amazing traditional black metal as well.  One of these such bands is Nazxul, which is part of the "Ordo Ater Anguis" or "Order of the Black Serpent", a collection of bands that is basically Australia's answer to France's Les Légions Noires.  The Australian collective includes the amazing Drowning the Light, among many others.

This is the first recording by Nazxul, their 1994 demo which pre-dates their debut full-length by a year.  I picked it up after reading some opinions that it is one of the creepiest metal releases of all time and that it is by far the best output by Nazxul.  With that kind of a recommendation, of course I checked it out.

The demo is indeed creepy.  It is dark and eerie with a swampy guitar tone.  Featuring shadowy riffs and vampiric vocals, it is definitely one of the more sinister-sounding releases I have heard in some time.  The songs are fairly short and simple, but awash in occult atmosphere.  There are only four songs here and they are short, but that makes it a quick and enjoyable listen.

I definitely enjoyed this release.  It fits in well with all of my Drowning the Light albums, even though it sounds quite a bit different.  It is a worthy black metal demo that has unfortunately gone under the radar.