Label: Napalm Records
Release date: February 28th, 2025
To be honest, listening to this album, I felt cold. It was not the regular coldness of winter, but rather a deep freeze of emotions. An emptiness that nothing can fill. It is the kind of cold that steals your soul, numbs your mind, and erases your ability to smile. It leads you into your own “Nightside”, where you begin to understand what this album truly meant. Grima knew exactly how and when to present us with their sixth full-length release, “Nightside”. By channeling the coldest breath and shortest days of Siberia into our lives, Grima woke me up after a long creative drought. Thanks to this album, my ink and feather are reunited once more.
Discussing riffs in black metal can feel almost pointless. There are too many variations, and I am not in the right mindset to dissect blast beats or the distinctive, familiar guitar tones Grima employs. That is because “Nightside” is not just about black metal in its traditional form. What makes it stand out is the use of additional instruments that elevate the sound beyond genre boundaries. These atmospheric layers transform the album into something more than just black metal. Without them, “Nightside” would be a conventional release, and honestly, it would be less captivating to me.
Grima’s creativity becomes immediately clear with the opening track, “Intro (Cult)”. It is a slow, melancholic harmonica instrumental that immerses us in a cold Siberian forest. Then comes the explosive “Beyond the Dark Horizon”, which reveals the darkness of the North through a phenomenal symbolic video and a melody that sends chills down your spine. “Flight of the Silver Storm” stands as the centerpiece of the album. Its atmosphere is utterly unique. The melody reminds me of a snow blizzard. It is unpredictable, overwhelming, and impossible to trace. As someone who lives in a region frequently referred to as the “Serbian Siberia”, I can confidently say I know exactly what I’m talking about. This song, along with “Mist and Fog”, perfectly captures that time of year when the cold is so intense it is almost frightening. Each day feels uncertain, and the next blizzard could bring anything.
I know this might sound like a weather report. However, what Grima achieves on “Nightside” is much more than that. They have poured real effort into portraying the atmosphere and emotional weight of life in one of the coldest places on Earth. That environment shapes a fear of the unknown and a profound sense of emptiness, which is difficult to put into words.
“Curse of the Void” and “The Nightside” offer rare touches of minimal folk influence wrapped in a raw death/black metal shell. Surprisingly, that harsh sound fits the album’s story perfectly. It creates a strong balance and breaks up the overwhelming melancholy with something more primal and urgent.
To complete this haunting portrait of Siberia, the album cover is frozen-blue like ice, dark as night, and beautiful as a winter morning. I imagine those shadowy creatures approaching me, and with the outro “Memories of a Forgotten Home” echoing in the background, I find myself willingly stepping into Grima’s world, never wanting to return.
In the end, “Nightside” is not merely an album. It is an invitation into an emotional and elemental landscape where sound becomes sensation. Grima has crafted something that transcends genre, drawing listeners deep into the heart of a frozen wilderness, both external and internal. The album evokes the solitude, fear, and quiet beauty of a place, and perhaps a state of mind, where time feels suspended. With “Nightside”, Grima has not just released music. They have created a living, breathing atmosphere, and once you are inside it, the silence of the snow and the roar of the storm never quite leave you.
