That which we have hungered for in silence for nearly half a decade strikes the ear like the viper’s poison to the heart of a shrew. With great overkill liquid death sprays from the eyes, mouth and ears while the heart stops and the organs liquefy pierced by the fangs of Tehran, Iran death metal band Nex Carnis who’ve finally re-emerged after four and a half years with a 7″ EP featuring two new songs. The void of the crypt howls behind them, emptied of all potential riffs and ‘Black Eternity’ manifests as a continuation of the cleverly strung rhythmic talents revered back in 2015 with the trio’s debut full-length ‘Obscure Visions of Dark‘  which was then high upon my best of the year list that time around. The old magic is still alight as a flame ever blackened but forever changed and thus all pre-existing notions beyond killer riffs should be tossed back into the unsealed crypts.

Back in 2015 ‘Obscure Visions of Dark’ was this massive bolt out of the blue that I’d felt was left unappreciated for how much of an appreciable feat it was coming from Tehran of all places and featuring guest/session members who were quite accomplished. Most notably drummer Jiří Zajíc of Heaving Earth and Ahumado Granujo lent a very brutal hand to the moderately technical stylings of the record, nearly overwhelming it with his great station in the mix. Beyond that it was clear the band had some great opportunities in hand employing members of Nephasth, Sceptic, Dies Irae, Tyrant Goatgaldrakona for lead guitar runs of varying styles which all lent extra personality to an already intensely delivered record barely contained by its 34 minute length. As I’d said expect great changes in the dynamic swing of Nex Carnis when approaching ‘Black Eternity’ with atmospheric and spacious production, far more technical drum applications that are not so mired in brutal death metal blasting, and a damned impressive performance from original bassist Arzhang who lends a sort of ‘old school’ tech/prog-death feeling to the slower sections. It all reads as an appropriate measure of growth and change across four years without losing that core attack that made the band so special upon introduction including some ripping death/thrash riffs punched in throughout.

My first thought was to compare the tightly wound rhythms and their moderate complexity to the jazzy twists and turns of Sickening Horror‘s ‘Overflow’ but the sound here is much warmer and the flow of riffs come much easier and immediate by Nex Carnis‘ hand. ‘Black Seeds of Vengeance’ era Nile might’ve been the right thought but ‘Black Eternity’ doesn’t dwell too deeply in one place, instead opting to keep the energy up for the duration of both five minute songs on this ten minute 7″ EP. The energy provided by Godagainst drummer Alvaro Sequeida is such an amazing fit for the daunting rhythm ability of Nex Carnis though fans of their debut might miss some of the lead guitar interest which isn’t a major feature of ‘Black Eternity’. The trade off comes with the rhythm work and the steadfast movement of the performances which tends towards a nearly technical death metal approach that never sacrifices the organic atmosphere achieved. Of course I can highly recommend this latest release from this Iranian trio, they’ve evolved beautifully and still retain their heavy hammer of pure death metal riff as they progress. Back to the altars to conjure the spectre that’d incant a second full-length…

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