Non Est Deus – Legacy
Noise is becoming an exceptional figure in black metal. He first introduced his dark art with Non Est Deus in 2018, and after that debut, he showed admirable skills, passion and also showmanship with KANONENFIEBER, Leiþa and Non Est Deus. We’re talking about 7 full length records, couple of EP’s and more under 3 different bands/projects. This german black metal private is like a one-man army and as in classic action movies, he is heavily armed with endless magazines.
No doubt he has a burning heart filled with hate and Legacy clearly expresses his spite and disgust against christianity. Before start pointing at the elephant in the room, I have to give credit where credit is due. Noise is inspired from the stories of Old Testament for this record, and he took out the divinity from them. There is a horribly beautiful recontextualization here and its somehow really satisfying to see that when you eliminate the possibility of Deus Ex Machina, everything turns to shit really fast, just as in real life.
So concept and lyrics are one thing to focus on Legacy, and the other is… Okay, this is really very similar to MGŁA and whatever you put on the table, it’ll come to this comparion at one point. Noise has a free, unpremeditated mind of songwriting. His each record (even under the same moniker at times) can be pretty different than the other. This time he put his love for Mgła and will to create an atmospheric, coherent black metal into the equation and the result is Legacy. From cymbal embellishments to repetitive simple riffs and even vocals, Noise really on the path of reproduction. One thing that seperates it from being a copycat is his little upbeat riffs here and there. I remember listening Amos the Prophet for the first time and I thought “this one would never fit in a Mgła record”. However, there are countless examples to fish for to point out the resemblance and very few to defend its authenticity.
Noise is a competent musician and I really enjoy listening Legacy, so I won’t be that harsh and talk shit like normally I’d do about bands like GROZA (I like them too but, come on). An underground black metal musician feels to play something like Mgła and since they’re one of the greatest of all times, who am I to judge Noise? Lets listen, enjoy, and not take it too seriously for this one time. This. One. Time.
75/100
Yağmur Ece
You might know Noise, a mysterious solo black metal musician from Germany. He is completely anonymous, saying that he wants people to “see the music, not have a mental image of his face as they hear him scream”. He has three different projects focusing on various topics. Kanonenfieber, of which you might have heard the latest album Menschenmühle, is mainly about memorializing victims of the First World War. The other project Leipa, which is relatively less popular to other two, is mainly about hopelessness and depression. His last project, Non Est Deus (translates to “there is no god”), focuses on criticizing religion; pointing out that “The problem is not religion itself, but those who use it to claim their need of power in the name of god.” He does this by not embracing Satanism as you may expect, but rather by emphasizing the issues with religious narratives.
The album is about the possible truth behind stories of the Old Testament and the promised fake hope with the faith. As you drift into 40 minutes of blasphemous storytelling, you never get bored or break off. The constant and unified flow strengthens the narrative in the songs. “Hiob” kicks a good start with the repeating riffs which is then followed by songs talking about specific books in the Old Testament such as “Amos The Prophet”. I recommend that you check each lyric with the story it refers to and not just listen to it. “Redemption Pt. I” is like an interlude between the songs with no percussion, rather slow tempo and shady atmosphere. The final song “Last Acts” talks about what could have possibly happened without divinity: Noah’s ark has sunk, the miraculous burning bush turned to ash, the fish did not save Jonah, and Lot’s daughters were raped to death.
In contrast to his previous album in the same project, Impious, Legacy has a darker and heavier atmosphere. There are no clean vocals in the form of speech in this album, which was quite disturbing and distracting for the unity in the other one. The drums are louder in this mix, which is helpful for keeping up with the songs.
Besides all these positive aspects, the album faced heavy criticism about authenticity from the listeners saying that the album is an imitation of Mgla’s songs such as “Exercises in Futility I” or “Age of Excuse II”. While I do agree that the musical aspects match to a degree, whether it be the storm of tremolos, the drumming, some riffs, or the album cover itself, I still think that this is a divine piece of music considering many features Noise has achieved to include. Firstly, the albums people pointed out are modern metal classics at this point. It is more than natural that he got some inspiration from other artists in the genre. Another point is that the concept is quite different as Legacy has a rather narrative and detailed approach when it comes to the lyrics. While it is possible to see anti-religion themes in black metal, he embedded these elements well in the songs while giving the listener a pleasure in both the storytelling and musicality. So, put your prejudices aside and give Legacy a chance as this is a great piece of music with well-written lyrics.
81/100
