The NULLL Collective "De Monstris" CD (Bonustrack)

A tale highlighting the continuous decay of the human race. Extreme raw, soul-shattering, hateful and experimental funeral doom-death - bowel-churning grim doom, not for the fainthearted. Features collaboration from members of Uncertainty Principle (UK), Torture Wheel (USA) & Until Death Overtakes Me (BEL). For fans of EVOKEN, ESOTERIC, ENCOFFINATION!

I don't know much about doom or funeral doom metal and it honestly was by pure coincidence that I discovered this album as I checked out some bands on the side and wanted to discover something new. The unusual name and the great cover artwork attracted me and I quickly gave it a try.
The band plays a very dark, noisy and bad production that fits quite well to play monotonous, slow and atmospheric tracks that would fit to any rainy autumn morning or black winter night. The songs gave me some goose bumps and started all in a very interesting manner. The problem is that I lost the interest after a few minutes and didn't get absorbed by the majestic dark atmosphere anymore. The band stretches its songs sometimes far over ten minutes even if everything is already said after only five minutes even if there is some minor variations like the slightly oriental sounds and chants in the opener "Exocation of the void-self". It would really have helped if the band would have written shorter, more consistent and more diversified songs to impress me even if this might not be the usual goal for a band of that kind. That's why the short interludes addict and impress me most and seem almost too short to me on the other side. A good mixture in between epic and short tracks would have been ideal for the record. In many songs, the band proves though that they are no bad musicians for example as the tribal drumming varies quite often and should be more courageous and progressive next time.
The most outstanding song is the cover version of the Christmas song "Silent night" that works with some bells and chimes and is probably the most outstanding cover version of this song that ever came to my ears. The dark and strange atmosphere of this song resumes the qualities of the band in a great way and the length of this track is optimal in here. Calm and haunting moments come along with weird dark passages and create a progressive mixture in not even six minutes of playing time. I hope that the band will play similar short and complex songs on their next records.
At least the band interested and introduced me to a new genre that I may further discover within the next months as I like this kind of conceptual atmospheric music that would fit to some bleak horror movies and seems to deliver sounds coming from the abyss of hell itself. I hope that those guys carry on and get even more unique and diversified as I will surely check out what they might do next. Anybody that likes dark doom, gothic or black metal from time to time and doesn’t care for actual lyrics that are completely absent on this record as the music only focuses on the atmosphere should check this band out.

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