Review written by  Roy Salien.

Nyrak is a progressive black metal band, based in Belgium and Germany. The band was founded in 2021 by Nevel (Guy VN). At first it was only intended as a solo studio project, however, a couple of months after the start of this project, Nevel was joined by Nihil (Xavier DS), who decided to take on the vocals. Now the band has expanded into a full lineup and played a couple of live shows since they've released their debut album "Malvs" last October. And that's the album we're looking into right now.

The intro track takes about 3 minutes and puts us into the right atmosphere, it gave me the feeling as if i was walking through an empty dungeon while hearing constant organs and enchantments dedicated to the dark lord in the background. The album's first real track is called "Spiegelscherven" and that song really kicks in like a mortar and it promises to destroy everything in it's path, the raw vocals of Nihil in combination with the shredding of the guitars reminded me of the good old days of Norwegian black metal. It's makes a strong opening statement regarding Nyrak's style and sets the bar high for the rest of the album.

The next song, "Ideopathic" makes use of more variety between the vocals,  the more doom-like vocals are exchanged by high grunts and both styles compliment each other quite well. The riffs on this track are also more melodic overall. Nyrak's sense of melody expands even further in "Surface," which is overall a much more sincere track and is a personal favorite of mine in this "Malvs" album. The atmosphere this song brings is quite remarkable as well , very dreamy and nightmarish with varied vocals and riffs spiced with the occassional orchestration.

Starting from the album’s fifth track, "Woken," there’s a sense that each consecutive song after that tune seems to get more and more melodic and calm, as if you are walking through a long, dark hallway and that all gets brighter with every step you take. "Woken" itself puts high emphasis on seemingly upbeat guitar riffs and less on the vocals. The next song "Lucid" starts off dark, menacing and heavy but again moves towards brighter things towards the end. "Interlude" is just some gentle acoustic guitar tickling and "Sight" is certainly the most versatile track on Nyrak's "Malvs" album. It has both clean and harsh vocals, both peaceful and dark orchestral parts, heavy riffs and acoustic parts. That same relatively peaceful style continues in "Burden."

And finally, after all these lighter passages Nyrak fully returns to their black metal roots with "Lost" and you feel like someone punched you in the face with a sledgehammer! The intensity is turned up a notch and it's a great song to bring Nyrak's debut album full circle.

Ever since the first track of Nyrak's "Malvs" I've had a smile on my face and I had a feeling it wasn't going to leave anytime soon during this epic 50 minute epic journey! With this debut album, Nyrak pay hommage to the classic Norwegian black metal scene but adds several elements including orchestration, acoustic parts, clean singing and a lot of melody to show themselves as a versatile and energetic band! "Malvs" shows exactly how much potential there is within Nyrak. I believe the future is looking bright for them and I can't wait to hear more from them!

8/10