It usually doesn't matter to me where raw, atmospheric black metal comes slithering from, so long as it is convincingly evil. Which solo, Indonesia black metal project Nansarunai absolutely does. Nansarunai sounds like a vampire crying in the depths of a partially submerged cave, half-starved and begging for death, but too cowardly to step forward into the sun and snuff out its miserable existence, so it resigns itself to survive on rotten fish and the stray, foolish child who happen to wander into its layer. Nansarunai is named for a fallen city-state located somewhere in present-day Borneo, and is a suitable mantel for the project, as it embodying the cries of a dead civilization and the murmurs of a living graveyard. The title of their debut album Ultimul Rege which translates to The Last King in English, a concept focused by the visage of a rather regal gentleman presented on the cover. An animate relic whose last breath will be the conclusive breath of the culture for which he is the final failing vessel. In a classic move culled from the crypts of cult cinema, the connective cords of the album are all spidery, cold melodies that would seem better suited for the organs and ragged strings of Hammer horror soundtracks, performed here through sharp, blood-letting tremolos. This aspect lends Ultimul Rege a dismal dynamism and makes the sour second-wave sigil spells that shape the rest of the album all the more cursed sounding. The production quality further augments this blighted quality of Nansarunai's aesthetic, almost tipping over into an anti-fidelity, sounding warped, uneven, and badly burnt, as if the tape it was recorded on had just barely been salvaged from the smoldering debris of a house of worship that a fire had consumed under mysterious and ominous circumstances. Ultimul Rege is an onerous and ghastly calling from a world that lies in ruin, deep within the spleen of the earth, waiting to vent its sorrow and pain directly into the cavity of your soul.
Get the vinyl from Death Kvlt Productions and cassettes from Banner of Blood.
