Nox Aeternum - Vale nostri moriens spiritum

Nox Aeternum from Pittsburgh, PA is a one man band that formed in the autumn of 2013 by Andrew Hart. To describe the music or put in into a certain genre is kind of complicated since there are a lot of dimensions at work here. We have some melodic black metal mix with melodic death metal and some progressive sounds thrown in. So here we have the debut EP entitled Vale nostri moriens spiritum which translates to Farewell Dying Breath. The EP was released in December, 2013 and is slightly over sixteen and a half minutes with four songs. I'm happy to say that this is one extremely impressive debut and has me anticipating a full length hopefully soon.

So starting off here we have "Empire of Filth" with an opening riff that kind of reminds me of something from the new Vinterbris, which I loved. So, of course my interest is immediately piqued. The riffing here is a cross between the black metal tremolos and some melo-death thrashers. The vocals flow from a black metal shriek to lower guttural death metal growls. At the midway point of the song we have a brief soft passage that reminds me of Opeth that leads into a shredding solo which, in turn, leads to the climax of the song with the harsh vocals slightly under some decent clean vocals. So far this shows me Mr. Hart can throw some serious hooks into his songs. Immediately following is "Reprise (In Nature's Cleansing)." A really brief little acoustic number, it seems out of place in the track order. It seemed that maybe it could have gone at the end of the album as a nice outro, but it's a nice little piece nonetheless.

"We Are But Falling Leaves" begins with a nice acoustic passage that leads right into the riffing that is really atmospheric with some dual lead riffs giving this tons of melody. His vocals sounds like Mikael Stanne here, which is nothing bad at all. The keys are slightly in the mix giving the song atmosphere and the acoustic passage in the middle is nice. Finally we have "Dawn of a Dead Sun" which begins with a piano intro and keyboards providing the string sounds. Once again we have some melodic lead riffs building the beginning up. Some cool riffing mixed with some well placed chugs leading into the verse. This song is the longest at seven minutes and shows a bit more of this guy's epic side. Mixing in all of the elements that make up this band into one song, including some progressive rhythms and chugs with some acoustic guitars in there all leading to a melodic solo and song climax.  The acoustic part taking you to the end of the song was a nice touch

There's a lot going on in the short amount of time that makes up this EP. I'm really interested in hearing a full length from this guy. He knows how to write catchy songs with hooks and melodies that draw you in. If you are a fan of epic melodic metal that has atmosphere and melody than you should check into this band.

9.5/10