Review by Felix on May 14, 2024.

Serbia seems to be full of wolves. All My Sins made a very recommendable concept album about this cozy animal and Nadsvest, hailing from the Serbian capital, released “an epic poem exploring the stages in the process of awakening the primal werewolf force in the warrior”. During my weekend trip to Serbia, I saw a disciplined flock of sheep, a few stray dogs and some excited chickens, but not a wolf for miles. I also didn’t feel any primal werewolf instincts in me. It was probably better that way, at least for the friendly sheep.

Nadsvest already has two releases in their discography, but they did not appear on my personal radar so far. I am glad that this status has changed, because Slovo Meseca I Krvi (“The Word of the Moon and Blood”, as far as I know) spreads an atmosphere of all-embracing darkness right from the beginning. That’s no matter of course! While I write these lines, the sun is shining and it is much too warm for May. Climate change knows no mercy. Guess it’s a kind of natural enemy of black metal. But our legions stand strong, haha. Either way, the extremely deep voice and the sinister guitar sound give the album this archaic aura of total eclipse, no matter what’s going on outside. This is true at least for the first two tracks, the third one starts with a pretty deceptive, calm beginning and holds further comparatively mild sections. Nevertheless, this song also has this animalistic undertone, not only during its fast sections. But let’s get back to 'Vihori Boja' and 'Ponori Adski', the first two massive monuments of the album.

These songs are like a call of the wild and simultaneously they invite the listeners to take a deep look to the blackest spots of their soul. Although they sound more controlled than spontaneous, they have an unpredictable core. The vocals commute between screams, religious Attila-like vocals (deep edition) and (mostly) throaty misanthropy. What they express is nothing else but despair, hatred and a dangerous form of insanity. After all, canyons open up and the songs have the power to draw you into the fathomless depth. Nadsvest does not need extraordinary experiments to achieve this effect. Some elements, for example the drumming, are even fairly primitive during some sections. But the interplay of the joy-denying guitars and the partly used keyboards works excellently. No doubt, this double strike at the beginning is fantastic.

The compositions, those of the first half as well as the following three, are not overly fast-paced and avoid dissonant sections. Quite the opposite, they have probably more melody lines than necessary. Nevertheless, the art of Nadsvest is radical, because the band does not make compromises. It forms a lightless cosmos and follows more or less only its own ideas, although a few keyboard tones in the quasi-title track 'Od Meseca I Krvi' remind me of Limbonic Art. By the way, just like the Norwegians, Nadsvest have a remarkable affinity for pretty bombastic song lengths. Six tracks shape an album with a playtime of more than 45 minutes. By the way, it is a well produced album with a full, well-defined and comparatively warm sound. Maybe the second half is not as strong as the first one, but the songs are still full of subliminal threat scenarios and musical substance. The partially shamanic vocals in the closer let me think of Arckanum, and this project as well as Svartsyn are bands that you like if you appreciate Nadsvest’s first full-length. And I would be really surprised, if the Serbian (were-) wolves don’t take this album in their heavy rotation.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Review by Vladimir on April 10, 2024.

In the Serbian black metal scene, one band that came out of nowhere and became a very pleasant surprise, was none other than Nadsvest. Back in 2019, when the band released their debut EP Kolo Ognja I železa, they presented their music that is very much along the same line as Malokarpatan and Negative Plane, that brought back the elements of oldschool European black metal before the second wave template. Nadsvest’s arrival was a very pleasant welcome, and the feedback they got from the EP was overwhelmingly positive, but awhile has passed since then, and for 5 years there were no talks of a new album. However, things would change once the band would finally resurface out of nowhere when the first new single 'Vihori Boja' was uploaded on Soulseller Records’ official YouTube channel, teasing their brand-new output in the form of their first full-length album Slovo Meseca I Krvi, with the release date of May 17th, 2024. With so much anticipation and excitement from the local fanbase, as well as black metal fans worldwide, they had much to live up to, especially since they had recently signed to a very respected label such as Soulseller Records, which has a roster of so many great black metal bands. And now without further ado, it’s time to explore the letter of moon and blood that foretold the return of the lycanthropic beast, as I take a look at their debut full-length album Slovo Meseca I Krvi. 

As the drums begin dictating a heavy marching rhythm, harsh guttural uttering and aggressive riffs join in to unite their rusty blades and raise all hell. The first track 'Vihori Boja' sets up the mood perfectly by building such a strong and ominous foundation, filled with atmosphere, bestial energy and dark Gregorian chants that summon the shadows of the abyss. Fast drumming and synthesizers finally come to play on the second track 'Ponori Adski', adding an extra devilish flavor to the already merciless destruction, and as the riffs become more interesting, you know for sure that this is where the fun really begins. As the album progresses from one track to another, it manages to get gradually darker and more intense, keeping the listener on the edge of his seat, especially with the clean guitar intro and drum buildup of the third track 'Vaznesenje Zveri', where the witching hour strikes as the bells begin to toll. There is a strong ominous presence in the music of Nadsvest, that manages to convey a death-defying and almost lycanthropic atmosphere with their tight riffing, which is constantly being carried over from one song to another, all until the very end. The smooth flow of the album is so superb that it builds up to the big moment at the end, and it totally delivers once it reaches the conclusion with the finale of the last track 'Trijumf Silnika - Smrt Sveta'. The finale of the song has a very gothic vibe thanks to the particular use of synthesizers that are very reminiscent of Popol Vuh’s Brüder des Schattens that was used for Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu. 

The songwriting is dynamic as hell, with frequent tempo changes and different ideas thrown in this mixture to expand it and spice things up. Some of those ideas include occasional guitar melodies, epic chant vocals and various drum patterns that altogether make the song more outstanding. Their performance is so bestial and full of rage that the bloody vocal performance of S. just makes the instrumentation even more intense and enraged that it’s borderline “war metal” at times. I like that this album takes the already strong foundation of their first EP Kolo Ognja I železa and reshapes it completely by giving more edge to the riffs, while still maintaining that dark age atmosphere which was a strong element of their music. They continue their tradition of incorporating Serbian dark folklore elements in their music and lyrics, as the lyrical themes deal with the black arts through the lens of the darker aspects of Serbian folklore, whereas the album’s concept is an epic poem exploring the stages in the process of awakening the primal werewolf force in the warrior, the triumph of the spirit and the ultimate sacrifice of the flesh. Throughout this album, you will hear a lot of influences coming from bands such as Tormentor, Master’s Hammer, Root, Malokarpatan, Negative Plane, Bathory, Mortuary Drape, with a little bit of Sarcofago, Beherit and Blasphemy thrown in for good measure. Ever since their debut with the Kolo Ognja I železa EP from 2019, it was obvious that Nadsvest’s songs were predominantly influenced by Master’s Hammer early material, ranging from their demos to their studio albums "Ritual" and "Jilemnický Okultista", and you can still hear a lot of those elements, especially on the fifth track 'Od Meseca I Krvi'. I like the fact that there is not a single bit of generic “norsecore” black metal, or any predominantly second wave black metal instances at all, because a lot of it focuses on that overlooked aspect of black metal music that had an entirely different atmosphere, heavily inspired by dark European folklore, with lots of other esoteric and occult elements to raise the intensity in the overall band performance. While still on the subject of their pre-second wave elements, they even incorporate those “reverse blast beats” that a lot of 80’s Brazilian extreme metal bands used in their cult classic albums, very much in the style of Sarcofago’s ex-drummer D.D. Crazy. Although the album art is great with its simplistic design, I do kind of miss that black background with the gold-embossing on the cover that was used for their EP, but nonetheless it is very much faithful to that style of medieval scripture and illustration that the band was going for. On the final note, the album production this time is much rawer and menacing than their EP, with the sound that successfully manages to point out the pure rage and organic feeling of their performance, nailing the spot completely. 

I was very surprised with this album how it turned out in the end, because after purchasing their Kolo Ognja I železa EP and listening it on repeat two years ago, I was not sure what to expect as a follow-up to that and I wasn’t even certain if it would ever come to happen. Luckily, the final result that is Slovo Meseca I Krvi is a wonderful black metal product that is faithful to their musical roots, which also succeeds in strengthening the foundation that Nadsvest successfully built back in 2019. I am not sure what I expected, but this one mean badass werewolf of an album certainly managed to exceed all my expectations. If you still haven’t taken the time to check out Nadsvest, then what the hell are you waiting for? Go check out their EP first and then make sure to immediately jump into this horrific thrill-ride that will sink its fangs in your neck on a full-moon night. 

Rating: 9.1 out of 10