When I walked into Permanent Records and asked the clerk if they had the new Nachtmystium his first answer was “No, not yet.” But he followed that up with a question. “Do you like dance beats?” This seemed odd at the time, but now after spinning the record many times, it makes perfect sense. With Addicts, Nachtmystium have completely changed the black metal game. In fact, calling this black metal might not even work. Not when entire songs are filled with keyboards and drum machines. Addicts has elements of dark wave, a few moments of old fashioned black metal, a touch of almost industrial and some straight forward -- as straight forward as these guys get at least -- thrash. And it mostly works to create a metal record you’ve never ever heard before.

The changes aren’t readily apparent because, after a short intro, “High On Hate” kicks the album off in blazing speed and isn’t a huge departure from Nachtmystium’s previous album Assassins. Those familiar know that the band was already drifting away from their black metal roots on that record. Yet, instead of stretching out the space rock tendencies of Assassins, Nachtmystium have chosen to change the formula completely. “Nightfall” gives a glimpse of this with its staccato rhythms and almost pop like sheen.

But it’s the fourth track, “No Funeral” that just says fuck it all. The song is all keyboard riffs and hand clap drums. “Do you like dance beats?” In Nachtmystium’s hands, I guess I do. “No Funeral” might be the darkest song these guys have produced which says a lot. Your feelings on this track will probably determine whether or not you are willing to go along for the ride.

Are Nachtmystium striving for mainstream success? I mean, the dark wave keyboards seem to scream for hipster’s attention. I’m sure die hard black metalheads could argue this is the case. But going mainstream usually requires softening your sound or cleaning it up around the edges. Listening to Addicts, I can’t see anyone not into dark, heavy music flocking to it. More likely, Nachtmystium are just following their whims. Like brethren Wolves In The Throne Room, Nachtmystium use black metal as their base, but aren’t beholden to its singular vision. They occupy the same coin although WITTR are nature loving hippie black metalheads and Nachtmystium feel like their urban counterparts.

Addicts isn’t a perfect album. For all of the weird changes, the album’s middle sags a little under the weight of, oddly enough, sameness. With their ever evolving sound it might be nice to hear Blake Judd change up his vocals every so often. Still, no one is doing what these guys are doing and “Blood Trance Fusion” with it’s squeals brings the album back into focus. Here Judd does adopt a vocal style ever so briefly that I can get behind: that of King Diamond’s grandma from Them. This is also the song that makes me think Nachtmystium might be working on a modern industrial thing. That is until the song kicks into straight thrash metal. Just me struggling to describe it should make you want to hear it for yourself.

It’s easy to be awed by something you both never expected and have never heard before. Sometimes sheer audacity makes an album worth your time. The thing about Addicts is, at first, my jaw dropped. But then I kept coming back to it because, besides being a clusterfuck of styles, it’s a fucking great record. At its core it’s a dark metal record dressed up with keyboards, drum machines and, on the closer “Every Last Drop”, Yakuza’s Bruce Lamont’s shamanic howl. For the most part, it sounds completely natural because I’m pretty sure it was made with the music in mind and not for the folks over at Pitchfork. Whether or not it gets their attention is beside the point. It got mine.
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Catch Nachtmystium on Thursday, September 9 at Otto’s in Dekalb, IL!

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Nachtmystium -- “Addicts”