I wonder how many upstart metal bands can say that the launch party for their debut album made it onto their country’s official tourist website. In the case of Bergen, Norway’s NATT (Night), they have managed to grace the pages of visitnorway.com. Now, I should say, I have no idea how hard this feat actually is, nor whether it says more about NATT or how much goes on Norway in mid-January but, still, I find it hard to picture some of the UK bands I have reviewed here making it onto visitbritain.com (although quite why anyone would want to visit this miserable island right now, I don’t know, unless they’re looking to witness first-hand how not to run a country). Five-piece NATT comprises a core duo of songwriters, René Misje (Kraków) and Roy Ole Førland (Malignant Eternal), who are then joined in the studio by others, including Enslaved’s Iver Sandøy behind the kit. Would the launch gig for their self-titled debut justify a visit to Norway?
NATT plays long-form instrumental post-metal / rock. The band’s debut, Natt, comprises just three tracks, the first two blasting through the ten-minute mark, while the third sails past 20 minutes. I say ‘blasting’ through but my choice of verb there rather suggests a sense of speed that this band does not have. There are no blasts. Riffs are monolithic, glacial things that take shape some way in the distance and gradually approach, gaining in size, shape and intensity. Natt is slow-build stuff, with atmospheric creations the order of the day, as contemplative clavinet, ponderous percussion and silky synths all have their place. These other elements are layered, building up a textured, subtly detailed landscape atop the gently undulated landscape of guitar and bass (Misje).
Opening track, “Skillevei” (meaning “Crossroads”) has a fluid yet restrained quality to it. Feeling somehow slightly distant and fragile, it is an enjoyable mood piece but lacks the instant energy of “Apell” (“Appeal”). The latter has an almost Russian Circles-like urgency to it, albeit without the crushing intensity that that band can hit. Sandøy’s work on the drums takes on a light, bounciness that NATT lack on “Skillevei”, with Førland’s synths a welcome addition—much like icing on a cupcake—rather than the focal point they become for chunks of the lengthy closer “Etterslått”. And let’s just talk about that closer because, for the vast majority of it, it offers very little. It’s all shimmering synths and distended sonic soundscapes, while threatened riffs repeatedly fail to materialize, percussion so minimal as to barely qualify as such. By the time, just shy of a quarter of an hour in, the track progresses into something more interesting, approaching pg.Lost territory, it’s too late. By that point, my attention has skipped off, hand-in-hand with my patience, to find something else to do.
This is a real shame because the first half of Natt is well-crafted and genuinely beautiful work, with pg.Lost and If These Trees Could Talk as decent reference points. The album is also well produced, the sound lush and detailed, with everything NATT offers showing up clearly and with room to breathe between the instruments. The issue, when it rears up, is one of pacing and songcraft. Of the many personalities that make up the singular Melvin that is AMG, I think I am probably one of the most likely to be well-disposed toward what NATT is trying to do here (see my enthusiasm for the likes of Driving Slow Motion and Daxma), yet even I struggle to stay focused during “Etterslått”, frequently realizing I’d wandered off while it was still in its infancy. I don’t like to penalize an album for one bad song but, when that song takes up nearly half the album’s runtime, it’s kinda unavoidable.
I appreciate that NATT evidently had a vision for the back half of their debut record but they need to find a more engaging way to present it. I want to emphasize that I do not necessarily mean by this ‘shorter’. Even if you halved the first 15 minutes of “Etterslått”, it would still be tediously lacking in real interest. What is needed is the energy and vibrancy that Natt tapped into for the front half of the record and, when I manage the focus on it, its last five minutes. That quarter-hour interlude will, I think, be a busy time for the bar staff at the launch party.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Edged Circle Productions
Websites: natt.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/nattinstrumental
Releases Worldwide: January 20th, 2023