Cult of Fire made a brave choice to release two albums on the same day, Moksha and Nirvana. Moksha I have already discussed and loved. Its eastern influenced instrumentation fused in with black metal for a rough, yet inviting spiritual experience. It is refreshing, unique, and overall great. How they were able to maneuver around spiritual black metal without falling into the pitfalls of mediocrity, uninspiring, and cheesy psychedelic many have stumbled into before them was impressive. Nirvana is meant to be a part two (or part one depending on your preference) to Moksha, and it makes sense with the similarities between the two records.

Many of the positive characteristics from Moksha carry over to Nirvana. Atmospheres are colorful and complemented by the harsh blackened elements. Blast beats mold the spiritual atmosphere with misty textures. The instrumental influences from the east are used exceptionally, but more sparingly used compared to Moksha. Rather than giving the elements moments to shine away from blackened sections, they become intertwined with the arrangements making for more cohesive ideas. “Buddha, pt. 1” switches from the snarling screams near the end to a monotone spiritual chant that isn’t quite my cup of tea, but it is interesting. Beautiful acoustic flutters appear and disappear across “Buddha, pt. 4” and “Buddha, pt. 5”.

Nirvana even continues the ideas of Moksha with another concept surrounding Buddhism and Hinduism. Where Moksha depicted the Aghori path, Nirvana depicts the Tantric Buddhist path. The Tantric Buddhist path is described as facing the five afflicted emotions, or five poisons (pride, desire, anger, delusion, and jealousy). What is interesting is one must not absorb these emotions, but be trained to look directly at them and transforming their purpose into enlightened clarity. Once faced, they become the five wisdoms. Unfortunately, I do not feel Nirvana captures the idea as well as Moksha and the Aghori path. As much as I like the fusion of sounds on Nirvana, it’s missing the light and day concept portrayed from the excellent softer sections on Moksha. “Buddhist, pt. 1” does start with an eerie acoustic arrangement with echoing production, but the three minutes it takes up drags on slightly too long causing the explosive entry to lose stang power. “Buddha, pt. 3” has a stronger introduction though with its anthemic guitar playing that carries over into the lively chords throughout the track.

Nirvana is anything but bad. Although the first two tracks are fairly underwhelming, the back-end of the record is excellent with very tight compositions that balance vibrancy and dankness. Cult of Fire have a unique talent for slipping in minute percussive instruments unorthodox to black metal within the blast beats. It just seems Moksha overshadows Nirvana in most aspects. If I was to combine the two records by listening to them back to back, I still feel it would be an incredible representation of their artistry. I recommend checking out both no matter the order. They both have similar qualities that excel in creativity and are stronger than most run-of-the-mill black metal records compositionally. Overall Cult of Fire made a bold decision to release the two records at once, and although it was a success I feel it could have been more exceptional if there was a period between them to digest them separately. Either way Nirvana is another successful attempt at the questionable realm of spiritual black metal.

Favorite Tracks: “Buddha, pt. 3”; “Buddha pt. 4”; “Buddha, pt. 5”

Rating: 7/10

Released: 02/20/2020

Label: Beyond Eyes

Genre: Spiritual Black Metal

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