I’ve been meaning to rave about Ecstacy/Agony by Nirensimt for a while now. In fact, I bookmarked the Bandcamp page you’ll find at the end of this piece a few weeks ago, but as I’m only a one-man operation (at least, on the website side of things) I’ve been swamped with about a thousand releases and, stupidly, Nirensimt’s newest release has gotten a little lost in the shuffle.

But no more!

Ecstacy/Agony is a fucking masterpiece of Atmospheric Black Metal and if you have any interest in the Black Metal genre, then you need to go and buy this fucking record.

The opening track isn’t called A Storm Gathers by mistake, as for its entire run time it builds the tension of the oncoming tempest you are about to find yourself trapped in. It starts slowly, but the pressure soon rises until you can see the jet black clouds hanging above your head, and just like that, the first roar of thunder and blot of lightning flashes across the sky with the heart pounding brutality of Irascor.

This in turn gives way to the evocative desolation of A Dream of Endless Night and the pure insanity of Stars Birthed From The Void. In my many, many decades of listening to music, these two songs, back to back, have to be my favorite one-two punch of all time.

They are almost polar opposites. A Dream of Endless Night makes you feel as hollow and haunted as the soundscape it paints, where Stars Birthed From The Void kicks in so viciously that it feels as if it’s trying to pull your arse out of your mouth by ramming it’s hand down your throat, only pausing momentarily in the middle to catch its breath, before returning to its gruesome task.

The remaining tracks on offer are just as intense – getting the balance between all out assault and moments of introspection perfect on the scales – and by the time that Earth Reclaims The Stone fades out, I guarantee that you will be hitting play again, straight away.

Nirensimt’s Ecstacy/Agony is a must-have, it really is that simple.

Head on over to Nirensimt’s Bandcamp page and pick yourself up a copy.