Review by Jeger on August 4, 2024.

To er is to be human, but to literally destroy any and everything good in your life at seemingly every opportunity is to be an addict. It’s just what we do. Our talents are often stark, but even our most valiant contributions are overshadowed by what we do best: destruction and chaos…Nachtmystium’s Blake Judd knows a thing or two about this. After all, he buried his own career with his addict behavior, which ultimately defiled the band’s reputation to the point that by the time Blake wanted to make a proper return to black metal, it was just too little, too late. 

Blake and Nachtmystium once stood proudly atop a USBM scene that they themselves were responsible for breathing some fresh creative life into. Blake’s brand of blackened psychedelia was like nothing anyone had ever heard and said style has not since been duplicated. Where would you even start? Signed to the international powerhouse Century Media Records at their prime and with a fine album to boast in 2014’s “The World We Left Behind”, it seemed that past controversies were finally forgiven and almost forgotten until Blake, out of the need to facilitate his addiction, or perhaps just in the spirit of fucking things up the old-fashioned addict way, resorted to his old tricks of the trade - ripping off fans by taking their paid orders and never fulfilling them. Way to go! But yeah, for the addict, it’s a matter of business and never anything personal. We don’t actually want to hurt anyone, and to do things out of character in the name of every last drop is unfortunately the name of the game. Wanna play? No, you definitely don’t…

Blake’s struggles were well-known and that’s due to not only his behavior but also to misery-drenched recordings like 2010’s Addicts: Black Meddle, Pt. II”. With dismal cuts like “A Cry For Help”, “No Funeral”, “Addicts” and “Every Last Drop”, a depressing and a very visceral tale is being told. And the story unfolds to some of the most unique and the most soulful black metal - the kind of stuff that other artists envied. Each song an avid descriptor of the addict’s personality traits, thoughts, actions and feelings; a miserable record but one that’s edged with a silver lining. For you see, it’s oftentimes this fucked up little sliver of false hope that keeps us thinking that one day we’ll be well-adjusted individuals. Whew! That was a close one, but now all is great and my treacherous ways are a thing of the past… A fool’s paradise indeed. There are parts of certain tracks and the entirety of others like the aforementioned “Addicts” that ring in contrasting triumphant tones. But eventually, that aforementioned sliver reduces itself to but a speck; one that we don’t even care to glance at any longer, even for the sake of soothing our own pain. We all get there eventually…

On a purely musical level, with “Addicts: Black Metal, Pt. II”, prepare to be puzzled but also moved. There’s a bizarre Southwestern Desert vibe to parts of it and some equally strange guitar arrangements that wash their way through even the most diseased of minds in a smooth, almost aquatic fashion: melancholy and downright dreadful in the record’s atmospheric ambiance. Some striking leads, engaging choruses, and even some soul-rousing chants here and there to remind me of my own bankrupt spiritual condition. How ironic… In my opinion, this is Nachtmystium at its peak and Blake in what feels like his creative natural habitat. It just represents everything that Nachtmystium did so well, and for individuals such as myself, a spellbinding little piece of truth and something to genuinely relate to. Every lyric rings truer than an old church bell and hits home like being run over by a cement truck.

Business, not personal. We need it, you see? And what we need may vary from time to time, but it will always come first, and don’t ask us to explain it, because your guess is as good as ours. Every last drop, remember? Blake made a comeback alright.  Nachtmystium’s 2018 “Resilient” EP saw Blake and the band in a refreshed state. Talks of a new label and a new LP began to slowly surface. The sliver! But alas, these new dreams were never realized as Blake would eventually and quite randomly post a message on social media explaining his desire to pack it up and move on to musical ventures outside the realm of black metal. Hasn’t been heard from since, at least that I’m aware of. Why? Who knows? But I bet whatever the reasoning was, it was over something fucked up and self-imposed. The timeless art of self-sabotage is mastered! A career imploded and gratefully forgotten by many, for Blake's face was the face of a liar and a thief in their eyes and not necessarily the face of someone who needed help because he just couldn’t stop destroying himself as he dragged the world down around him. Addiction is a life sentence and “Addicts: Black Meddle, Pt. II” is a testament to its nefariousness and perpetual progressiveness. Some messed up shit. Damn good black metal though…

Rating: 9 out of 10