Hearing Thantifaxath’s debut full-length Sacred White Noise for the first time in 2014 formed an epiphany, an immediate realization of witnessing the manifestation of an instant contemporary classic in the field of black metal, a work of art almost too strange, horrifying and beautiful to comprehend, and one that has stood the test of time. Those of us ravenously chasing the first high of experiencing the album got their fix in the form of 2017’s magnificent, and aptly titled, Void Masquerading as Matter EP. At long last, we have Hive Mind Narcosis, a new portal to the collective creative psyche of Thantifaxath.

With its idiosyncratic avant-garde style, itself the musical equivalent of frenzied, speed-addled spiders and centipedes crawling over your sleep-paralyzed body, the music of Thantifaxath has always embodied something unique, a ferocious storm of darting scales, nightmarish dynamics and manic intensity. On Hive Mind Narcosis, the night terrors continue, with increased refinement and elegance that combines dissonance and harmony in a spell-binding manner that has seemingly conflicting elements joining in dark matrimony.

The enigmatic essence of Thantifaxath’s music has continued deepening, at once made evident by the jettisoning of the terror-inducing song titles of their earlier releases, this time opting for something illusive and beautifully confounding both lyrically and musically, promptly exemplified by the spiraling vertigo of “Solar Witch”. The first three minutes of “Surgical Utopian Love” provide a throwback to sensory assault of Sacred White Noise, before suddenly vaporizing every space-time coordinate and plummeting down into a well of blood-curdling ambience, from which it gradually recovers by tightening its vice grip before transitioning to “The Lost Wisdom of Wolves” which alternates between racing intensity and sudden U-turns. “Hungry Ghosts” in turn promises breakneck momentum, but decides to go on a jagged, crisscrossing ride reminiscent of a nightmare where escape is an overriding priority, but every door leads to a new corridor of increasing horrors.

As one of the absolute highlights of the album, “Burning Kingdom of Now” pulsates and growls with a sweeping operatic dread and tension invoked by swelling strings, to remind us of the majestic scale Thantifaxath deploys into songs that otherwise carry a deeply personal sense and experience of despair, an act that itself further enhances the bewildering impact of the music. “Mind of the Sun” is another home run with its expanding waves of discomfort that accentuate the voltage and the surprisingly thrash-like energy that unfolds and culminates in a sudden, Emptiness-style conclusion. Both tracks recall the feral vigor and overwhelming nature that made Sacred White Noise such a cannon blast into the heart of madness.

Ultimately, no other band writes music like this. Thantifaxath is one of those uniquely unusual bands that simply do not have any peers, close relatives or copycats, and Hive Mind Narcosis has them continuing their march deep into the territory of legends.

– Zyklonius

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Hive Mind Narcosis is out now on Dark Descent Records. For more information on Thantifaxath, visit their Facebook page.