Angry Metal GuyBlutsauger – Nocturnal Blood Tyrants
By Alekhines Gun
Raw black metal is a tricky proposition. There’s an extremely thin line to walk between production choices designed to add mood and atmosphere to compositions via a wall of auditory fog and production choices that sound like someone threw their equipment down….wait, haven’t we done this already? We sure have, and boy oh boy have we landed on the opposite side of the coin. While Italy is most known for its symphonic (Fleshgod Apocolypse) and tech death (Hour of Penance) scenes, its black metal collective is also alive and well, doing their own thing in their dark corner of the world. Today’s offering is the debut release by duo Blutsauger (German for “Bloodsucker”), coming hot off the heels of sole demo Path of the Bleeding Dead. A gander at that colorless, bleak art aptly spells out the whole mission statement, as Nocturnal Blood Tyrants comes to land blackened crowbars to your very glass jaws, with not a dollop of fun to be found.
How raw is raw? Nocturnal Blood Tyrants is an abrasive, loud, violent listen, with treble turned up wide into a blast furnace of sound over Archgoat-esque drum savagery and not a glimmer of bass (instrument or tone) detected in the ensuing fallout. Utilizing the searing, caustic approach of Dethroned, Conquered and Forgotten era Judas Iscariot with the gain cranked up to 11, Blutsauger aren’t here to be memorable as much as overwhelming. “The Black Hunters” shows the album’s blueprint in all its blackened glory, with a flood of chords collapsing from one quick shift to the next as the drums1 charge relentlessly underneath the tornado of tones. In terms of presentation, Nocturnal Blood Tyrants never lets up, with no chords ever obtaining warmth and vocals maintaining a Blasphemous perpetual pitch throughout the release.
Wisely, Blutsauger make up for this uninviting presentation with a good variety in their riff approach. On average, Nocturnal Blood Tyrants uses an A/B phrasing, where a song comes out blasting and shredding with blood and vinegar before using tempo shifts to craft moments of individuality and personality. “Black Shroud Ritual” is a key example, with a sudden swerve of a slowdown that evolves into straightforward headbangability with the drums presenting some brief moments of real rhythmic transitions and one to two-measure fills. This approach is developed over the course of the album, where what begins as a clear and concise formula starts to grow roots and blossom into something more mature and layered the deeper into the listen you go. This variety in riffing is a welcome reprieve for what would threaten to be a completely flavorless haze of a listen.
Curiously, this results in the more interesting ideas of Nocturnal Blood Tyrants being located in the back half. Title track “Nocturnal Blood Tyrants” flirts with sustained, depressive open chords for a prolonged passage, with the drums presenting military style rolls and staccato-heavy fills. “Wash Them With Fire” sports the album’s first actual lead and consequently stands out like a lightning bolt in a clear sky, particularly when the drums switch their stylings into china-heavy accents and fills before dropping into a vintage Tsjuder tank-plodding attack. Blutsauger even try their hand at the greatest trope in all genres of metal (Le epic grand finale track) with a doomy tempo and a complete lack of the speed and ruthless assaults of the preceding 27 minutes. This exhausted display, the sound of an outfit spent of all their energy and wrath, but never of their sardonicism and anger, makes for a surprisingly efficient album closer by contrast, even if the samples used are wasted in the mix.
Much like a really well-made horror movie, I can’t see myself returning to Nocturnal Blood Tyrants often unless the mood strikes, but only because of how well it accomplishes what it sets out to do. Blutsauger crafted a release that is utterly devoid of anything that could be called beautiful, attractive, or endearing. Its production is violent on the ears, its chord progressions never become softer than “melancholic”, and its tonal palette is as warm as your ex’s heart. But for the spirit of raw black metal, such traits are ringing endorsements. A careful attention to riffcraft and refusal to let the production overtake the importance of actual songwriting have conjured forth an album of genuine quality, if not of approachability. Raw black metal is a tricky proposition, and if you’re on team No Fun in metal2. I cannot imagine this leaving anything but a blackened frown on your face.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 103 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: ATMF
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: August 29th, 2025
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