NINNGHIZHIDDA
Learning to properly spell and pronounce this German 4-piece's moniker is about as challenging as trying to read their logo. Why on earth do bands continue to do this? Once you get a taste of NINNGHIZHIDDA's music, you won't be pulling your hair out over that much. Rather, you'll be swinging it about in fits of reveling bliss. Welcome the latest Metal hybrid to a scene that knows no end to diversity.The band aren't exactly new. They've been playing evil music for a few years now but my radar had failed to detect them when I fancied upon a sampling on their record label's website. I immediately went scrambling for my overused credit card and the order was placed straight-away. When the disc arrived with two others I couldn't wait to hear it.
My initial listen, just seconds into the album, didn't have me hopping through flaming hoops but my patience bore out and I realized that this was one of those obscure releases that deserves more publicity than it has thus far gotten. Demigod is a killer fusion of Old School Swedish Death Metal guitars like those of early DISMEMBER and DESULTORY meshed with atmospheric Black/Death Metal such as is played by DIMMU BORGIR and OLD MAN'S CHILD. Sound a bit odd? Never had I thought it could possibly sound this good but lend your ears to this album for about 40 minutes and you'll see why I am so satisfied.
The opening track features the definitive sound of early Swedish Death Metal riffage and suddenly transforms itself into a piano-hungry tapestry of beauty before falling into a hybrid of both. The album's best track comes second in the form of "Fools Of Christ", a blasphemous, ass-kicking track right out of the songbook pages of DIMMU and OLD MAN'S CHILD. You won't soon pry the keyboards from this song from your memory, I promise. Onward, the band hone their practice with dark, satanic and mystical tracks like "Rape (the Virgin Mary)", the foreboding "The Awakening", the more melodic and expansive "Conquering What Once Was" and the majestic darkness of "Demigod". Old Lucifer would be proud, I'm sure.
NINNGHIZHIDDA inject just the right amount of melody into their music to keep the balance of death riffing and keyboard backdrops in total harmony. The vocal performance too, seems perfectly executed as they stay true to the Death Metal genre yet are more than satisfactorily intelligible. Furthermore, while the leadwork is standard and not overly intricate, its executed with melodious efficiency and provides a bridge between the dark transitions so commonplace on this album. Most of Demigod is mid-paced but be prepared for some unexpected furies of blasting and shredding. That said, you know you have to buy this album if anything I just said makes a damn difference to you. Just do it.
