NAZXUL Irkalla CD 2021

Australian black metal has always had its own cold logic, separate from the Norwegian blueprint and indifferent to what's happening anywhere else. Nazxul understood that early. Formed in Melbourne in the mid-90s, they were part of the same cursed soil that produced Abyssic Hate and Spear of Longinus, and Irkalla, their long-awaited return, sounds like something that was buried and came back wrong in the best possible way.

Named for the Sumerian underworld, Irkalla picks up the thread of their debut Totem and pulls it somewhere darker. The riffs are massive and unhurried, the atmosphere suffocating without resorting to lo-fi murk. This is Australian black metal at its most deliberate, the kind of record that rewards patience and punishes casual listening.

CD in gatefold digi-sleeve. Limited to 500 copies. Includes download code.

Fans of: Emperor, Pestilential Shadows, Absu, Judas Iscariot, Funeral Mist, Leviathan.