NILUUS – Demo 2016

Niluus is a brand new black metal act hailing from the UK, and I must say that this demo of theirs is quite interesting. It only contains three songs, one of which is an excellent cover of Bathory’s immortal "Satan My Master", but their two "own" tracks reek of potential and interesting ideas. Their take on black metal is neither original nor innovative, but that does not change the fact that both "Stones ‘neath the Pyre" and "Architecture of Abomination" are excellent compositions that are both cleverly written and nicely arranged.

In terms of atmosphere, Niluus brings to mind 1349 in places, but some of the riffs and melodies remind me of Gorgoroth. You could probably name-drop a few more well-known black metal acts that the music of Niluus sounds inspired by, but, again, this three-track demo contains a lot of good ideas, and the whole thing sounds neither cheap nor derivative. It will be interesting to see how these guys develop and refine their sound and expression in the future. The songs are dynamic and varied, and the production is pretty good too. Some parts are more memorable than others, but all in all this is a cool release that all you lovers of black metal ought to check out.

https://niluus.bandcamp.com/album/demo-2016