Review Summary: Though ambitious, intricate, stylized, and original, Verity suffers from severe bloating and a lack of memorability.
After an eight year wait, I can announce that Verity is not likely to be the album many have hoped for. Despite containing quality material, the album's overall consistency is remarkably poor, resulting in a ho hum impression come the end of its seventy-five minutes.
Though Verity contains a host of questionable compositional decisions, there are several huge standouts, particularly Molfa, a track about nearly as good as anything on the band's previous outing, Voice of Steel. The intro and outro tracks are decent enough atmospheric bookends, despite being forgettable, and the cover (Lira) I can not only absolutely do without, but am flabbergasted by the band's decision to include it close to the middle of the album and not as a bonus track. It feels as awkward as it sounds, from a pacing perspective and from a musical one. However, at least it's not a track that I can say I derive not even a modicum of value from; that would be a description reserved for Wolfish Berries, the album's single, a song that simply does not a thing for me. Every other track on this album tickles me in at least some way, but not this one--it plodds along for 9 minutes with no captivating hooks or swells to speak of. It represents in one song about everything that is bad about this album: it's a mid-tempo slog devoid of energy. And it contains nothing, even after repeated listens, discerning of praise.
Sonically, this album is very impressive. The production is thick, full, warm, and organic. There is a ton going on at once at pretty much every given moment, but it's all mixed very well; one expects to be overwhelmed by the musical approach, at least at some point during the long album, but this never happens. I can't begin to express the respect I have for Nokturnal Mortum's choice to push themselves artistically, rather than dial in another Voice of Steel. A lot's changed, but I would specifically use the word evolved. It doesn't feel like things have been shaken up simply for its own sake. It feels like the band pushed themselves in a direction they simply wanted to go. This time around we have an intensely dense, constantly layered piece of music, with a real texture to the sound due to the intricate arrangements of folk instruments and the atmospheric keyboard work. Nokturnal Mortum have crafted material a lot folkier this time around also, but think in more of an atmospheric eery way, not in an upbeat uplifting way as in, say, the track Ukraine, from Voice of Steel.
The folk direction taken on Verity leaves me conflicted. On one hand, the arrangements seem meticulously put together and add a lot of density to the material; there are a ton of bells and whistles added to the music in the form of eccentric folk instruments, and so there's a lot of places at any given moment to direct your attention, and this results in increased replay value. Where my problem comes in is when the folk instrumentation sits closer to the top of music and deviates from its textural role. The main way in which this happens is with the presence of flute: there is a frustrating number of times in this album where everything else going on in the music is supremely interesting, except for a flute sitting at the top of the mix, delivering its own independent melody. What this sounds like is a flute vying against everything else for attention, like it was added as an afterthought, seeming very likely that it did not play a role in the songwriting stage and was instead part of a decision made much later on in the album's production, the result being disjointedness and melodic conflict.
Make no mistake, if you liked the band's previous LP there is no guarantee that you will like Verity, as sound wise they are doing two very different things. It's unlikely that I'll be alone in sorely missing the Floydian soundscapes and bluesy guitar work that made Voice of Steel such a standout piece of work, things which are all but eliminated for Verity. But again, I commend the band for not repeating themselves, as much as perhaps I would have liked them to.
It would be unfair to call this a total disappointment. As noted, the band's sense of exploration is something to be admired and it should go without saying that the new style isn't bad at all; it's ultimately that I'm left with barely a desire to revisit the album, as rarely does it scratch any musical itch of mine. So even though I respect Nokturnal Mortum a ton artistically, I have selfish reasons for wishing they instead decided to tap once more into whatever artistic reserve was responsible for Voice of Steel. I don't think there's any reason for them to have stopped exploring that style, though of course, not wanting to is as good a reason as any.
