As far as I understand, this release is in fact a rerecording of an album released in 2009, which was also called Antik. What reasons the band might have had to rerecord the album I do not know, but the 2011-Antik certainly has a very professional production. Everything is pristine, clean and well-defined, which certainly makes the album quite listenable even to people who are not very experienced in the dark and epic type of music that Nachtblut represent.
Nachtblut's style is dark metal which draws on black metal, traditional metal and gothic metal with a dose of synth-driven symphonicity injected into it. Most of the riffage is quite heavy and straight forward and akin to the riffage heard on many classic metal releases, but sometimes the overall sound enters into power metal territory. The riffs definitely are very solid on this release, and the Nachblut guys definitely have a knack for writing good old fashioned metal riffs ... even if one of the main riffs in "Sturz des Ikarus" sounds a bit like the main theme of the Kraftwerk classic "Das Model".
While I am a big fan of the riffage on this album, the black metal-based vocals and the use of synths and symphonic effects do not sit well with me. The vocals themselves I have no problems with, but they just seem a bit out of place in the context of the music on this album. As regards the synths, they are simply too cheesy for my taste most of the time.
That being said, I cannot deny that Antik is a quality album and the the band definitely know 100% what they are doing. And fans of German dark gothic metal should definitely check out the album, which even comes with a whole bunch of bonus tracks.
Track list:
1. Antik
2. Ijobs Botschaft
3. Die Blutgräfin
4. Gedenket der Toten
5. Die Mutter die ihr Kind verlor
6. Sturz des Ikarus
7. Kreuzigung
8. Hexe
9. Des Menschen Kunst Blindheit zu säen
10. Kreuzritter
11. Ketzer (bonus track)
12. Nie Gefragt (bonus track)
13. Gedenket der Toten (Hellenische Version) (bonus track)
14. Alles nur geklaut (bonus track)
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