Nox Illunis
In Sideris Penumbra

February 2011
Released: 2010, War Productions
Rating: 2.0/5
Reviewer: Robert Williams

Hailing from Treviso, Italy comes the black metal stylings of Nox Illunis, a young band with a split record and demo release already to their credit.



IN SIDERIS PENUMBRA marks their debut full length offering and begins with a sorrowful acoustic guitar melody before transcending into more hateful and bleak melodic black textures on "Echoes In The Abyss". This is niche black metal, probably appealing mostly to starry eyed, raven haired girls with a dependency on Prozac. Depressing, melodic, and melancholic... this type of black metal is not an all out war against the Christian church, nor does it seem to be an affront against humanity in general. Basically, what I'm getting at is it's not "Necro" per se, but your girlfriend probably digs it. "Ira Sommersa" is next and offers nothing truly groundbreaking, pretty standard paint by numbers BM. Screechy vocals...check. Minor chord warblings...check. Buried bass lines...check. Blast beat sections...check.



"The Last Rising Sun" features a pretty sub par melody line courtesy of guitarist Kaos, and plods along with no real purpose in life. "Darkness Of The Soul" fares a bit better, with some nice percussive flourishes by the hands of drummer Master. The further I get through this disc, the more I realize the limited musical abilities of this foursome. I would have to give the nod to the drummer as sounding the most accomplished out of the four members of the band.



"Evoking The Stars" closes out the disc and begins with a folk inspired acoustic passage that creates a nice somber atmosphere. When the distortion kicks in, the tempo thankfully stays at a slow sluggish pace and evokes the album's best melodies in my opinion. At 7:44, this track is the most ambitious soundscape to be featured on IN SIDERIS PENUMBRA.



In conclusion, there isn't much here warranting repeated listens. Sadly for my Italian metal brothers in Nox Illunis, the route that they have chosen to travel with this release lumps them in with the dime-a-dozen crowd and they have failed to offer anything unique to the equation to set themselves apart from the pack. Better luck next time guys.