Nothzog - Exitus (Review) | Obscurium Webzine

In the year of disgrace two thousand and twenty-five, beneath a sky of ashes and iron, there came the first manifesto of Nothzog, a solitary child of the Teutonic mists. Exitus is its name, and from the very first sound it tolls like a funeral bell, deep and solemn.

The opening chords, like the crash of an ancient gate being broken, bear the mark of the great blacksmiths of the German North. One easily recognizes the grave breath of Eisenkult, the fury of Atronos, perhaps even the shadow of Heimdall’s Wacht, marching with heavy steps among the ruins. The guitars weave a veil of iron and wind, sharp and melancholic, each riff resounding like an echo from Valhalla in flames.

The voice, hoarse and possessed, does not merely declaim, it invokes. It is the cry of a lone man cast over dead hills, where faith has long since perished but memory still burns. Within that rage hides a form of order, a will to build anew, as though the ruin itself had become a temple.

Yet, for no work is without flaw, the discerning ear will detect a certain strangeness on the side of the drums. These percussions, though precise and measured, at times seem struck not by flesh and skin, but by some mechanical sorcery from another age. One might think a modern warlock had breathed his art into the gears of a forgotten machine. The rhythm, a little too bound to the click, lacks at times that living irregularity one expects from a true ritual trance. Still, let it be said, the fervor of the whole overwhelms this small artifice.

For Exitus is not an album made for mere ornament, but for trial. It demands of its listener the patience of a pilgrim and the devotion of a believer. And when one surrenders to it, one finds a rare breath — that of a sincere craftsman, forging alone in his night a work in his own image, rough, honest, and steeped in noble desolation.

In sum, Exitus stands as a promising first seal, an act of faith in fire and solitude. Though the drums may yet soften with time, the soul is already there, black, upright, and proud.