When NACHTMYSTIUM founder Blake Judd disgustedly described the ironic, unmetal crowd at a 2006 show as "nigel hipsters," his denunciation made metal headlines for its perfect seizing of the moment. For reasons that remain unclear (apart from the sudden embracing of metal at a very prominent indie-rock site), circa '06 the people who had once criticized and mocked metal fervently and consistently were, suddenly, "rocking black metal" while sporting brand new DARKTHRONE shirts and buying BORIS and SUNN O))) vinyl with the kind of zeal reserved for only those who will be on to something new in 18 months. Though one supposes that the hipster 'fascination' with metal couldn't really be scorned because it brought more people to shows and increased metal's exposure generally, hipsterdom's obsession with I-was-there-first! self-righteousness is what had the rest of us teetering at the edge of annoyance: when you walked into a record store and got told by a stupid-ass clerk that indie-rock fans had "always" been into black metal because EARTH was signed to Sub Pop, you were forced to shake your head in dismay at how the ironic hipster infection had infiltrated even our world. Ergo, Judd's impatience and revulsion with the hipsters at his show was a rallying cry, one that has been reprised on the return to black metal that is latest record Silencing Machine (yes, it's a NINE INCH NAILS reference, even if the album has nothing to do with Trent and co.). Nachtmystium has always been the torchbearer when it comes to pushing black metal's boundaries to unthinkable, un-forest locales and while 2008's Assassins: Black Meddle Part I and 2010's Addicts: Black Meddle Part II were impressive bouts of exploratory surgeries, it is Silencing Machine that is the true follow-up to Nachtmystium catalogue highlight Instinct: Decay (whose most sublime moment, 'A Seed For Suffering', is mythical in these parts, though Eulogy IV's 'My Vengeance' occupies similar spaces). Which isn't to say that Silencing Machine is better than Assassins or Addicts, because it's not. 'Ghosts Of Grace,' 'Your True Enemy,' 'No Funeral,' 'High On Hate' and especially 'Ruined Life Continuum' from the aforementioned Black Meddle duo ensure those albums' prominence over Silencing Machine but, in 2012, it is immensely comforting to know that Judd has returned to his original black circle and re-embraced Oslo and Bergen's winter of discontent of '91. When 'I Wait In Hell,' ‘The Lepers of Destitution’ or Silencing Machine's title track dissertate with their jagged and caustic purpose, one feels as though a completion of the burning pentagram is taking place, and taking place boldly: though the experimentation of 2008 and 2010 is what helped facilitate Nachtmytium's ultra-respected boundary pusher status, the fact that the band now has a third piece in the Demise and Instinct: Decay trinity of frozen (carpathian) forests warms even the ice of immortal blashyrkhs. Don't understand that last sentence? Then go back to your SLEIGH BELLS record, asshole.