Nhaavah

Nhaavah - Nhaavah
Unisound Records, 2002
Genre: Black Metal

Kings of Czech Black Metal
1. Death
2. I am Satan, I am God
3. Hate
4. Xenophobia
5. The Law
6. War
7. Nhaavah
Determination, Detestation, Devastation:
8. Determination of Life
9. Detestation of Humanity
10. Devastation of Church



Nhaavah is yet another side project of Vlad Blasphemer, this time only with Maniac Butcher's vocalist Barbarud Hrom. If you missed out on their only two releases, this self titled release compiles everything Nhaavah have ever done for the first time on CD. It was a fairly short lived project and seems more focused on playing fast than playing for anything else. This has one of the most ridiculous booklets I've ever seen, all the information and lyrics are crammed onto the very last panel and when you open the booklet it's just black inside. Probably one of the worst layout designs around.

If you're unfamiliar with Nhaavah you'll be surprised to see how short the songs are and how fast this album cranks through everything. This is almost akin to Black Grind, given the ridiculous speed with which the drums are programmed. Even though there are bands out there that can play this fast, it sounds ridiculous with the programmed drums, because the ride cymbal doesn't sound real so it's just some strange clicking noise. It's not constant speed, songs like "Hate" have lengthy sections that slow down, but most of it is pretty fast and a lot of the songs are around two minutes in length.

Maybe Nhaavah has more substance if your into more of the Grind style than I am, but Nhaavah is one of their projects that doesn't really have much for me. It might have a few moments where the riffs are pretty good, but it's very short lived. Nhaavah isn't trying to construct a Black Metal atmosphere, I think they're just trying to assault our senses with blisteringly fast music, it doesn't really matter if the riff is good or makes sense.

Nhaavah & Katharsis Split
Sombre Records, 1999
Genre: Black Metal

Nhaavah:
1. Detremination of Life
2. Detestation of Humanity
3. Devastation of Church
Katharsis:
4. Raid of Destruction (The Ninth Age)
5. I... Am... Redeemer








Side Katharsis: here
Side Nhaavah:

While I had heard both Nhaavah and Katharsis, I'll be honest, the reason I bought this was for Katharsis. This is Nhaavah's second release, the first being their only demo tape. Here they have a split 7" with one of Germany's finest. This is on the legendary Sombre Records and limited to 500 hand-numbered copies, of which I own #480.

The material on this split basically picks up where "Kings of Czech Black Metal" left off. The production is a little more clear, but that's about it. We still have the same blisteringly fast Black Metal played in under two minutes. The only reason the first song breaks the two minute mark is because there is an ambient styled intro. The insert of the 7" describes the music as "Raw War Black Metal" and I'd have to say that fits. It's almost as if this is what Marduk is trying to achieve sometimes, but they can only play so fast and they're a little more reasonable with adding memorable riffs into the mix.

Either way, Nhaavah certainly isn't for everyone and this project was fairly short lived. Focus on Maniac Butcher makes way more sense for these two musicians, in my opinion.  I sort of imagine Vlad mainly fooling around with this saying "see, we can play ultra fast too!" as a response for all the speed based projects that were coming out in the late 90's.