Nexus Polaris

Product Description
1998 album from Covenant who changed their name to Kovenant. Fine and innovative. Nuclear Blast.

Tracks:

The Sulfer Feast
Bizarre Cosmic Industries
Planetarium
The Last Of Dragons
Bringer Of The Sixth Sun
Dragonheart
Planetary Black Elements
Chariots Of Thunder

Album Description

1998 album from Covenant who changed their name to Kovenant. Fine and innovative. Nuclear Blast.

Customer Reviews:

A good album.......2007-03-28

I bought this album, cuz it had a really great lineup in this album. Nagash(ex-Dimmu Borgir), Astennu(ex-Dimmu Borgir), Sverd(Arcturus), Hellhammer(Mayhem, Arcturus, and current Dimmu Borgir)and Sarah Jezibel Deva(Cradle of Filth, Angtoria). I love the album from the start. Sadly Nagash fired all the members and changed them for new ones.

Absolutely essential.......2007-02-07

Before I discovered this album, I could never have imagined the concept of melodic, atmospheric black metal--or that any band could pull off something like it. Since then, Nexus Polaris has opened my eyes. I've never heard metal like this before, and I probably never will again. The sound is so original, and yet so cohesive, that it could only have been created by some of the best musicians on the extreme metal scene--and, indeed it was.

The fiendish, snarling vocals of Nagash (now known as Lex Icon, formerly of Dimmu Borgir, currently in The Kovenant and Crowhead), two outstanding guitarists in Astennu (Dimmu Borgir and Carpe Tenebrum) and Blackheart, keyboardist Sverd (Arcturus), the remarkable Hellhammer (Mayhem) on drums, and finally the backing female vocals of Sarah Jezebel Deva (Cradle of Filth) all come together on this album, producing a sound that is at once lethal, beautiful, and mesmerizing. Everything about Nexus Polaris falls perfectly into place--not just the musicianship, but the lyrics, CD artwork, and production as well. Nuclear Blast (the record label) has been known for excellent quality, but even for them, this is something special.

Although I'd never heard of this album until recently, Wikipedia states that "Nexus Polaris was released in 1998 and was hugely successful (due to Nuclear Blast's promotion), allowed Covenant to do a two-week tour, and was on national Norwegian television for six days. This was also a sign of Covenant moving from black metal to cyber metal and space metal. Soon Covenant found themselves nominated for a Norwegian Grammy. They attended and won for Best Hard Rock band (the first ever in history)."

I have to say they deserved the success. Nexus Polaris was, and still is, a singular achievement. It's something that every extreme metal fan should experience.

Sure to be a timeless metal classic........2005-10-21

I am not typically a black metal fan, but, then again, Nexus Polaris is not your typical black metal album. Therefore, black metal purists beware! While there are more straightforward black metal tracks on this album, most tracks contain stunning melodies, and some could even be described as bordering on the extremely heavy power metal line.

One undeniably black component of this album is the vocals. Operatic female vocals from Cradle of Filth's Sarah perfectly complement the deep woods, under the bridge troll-witch growl of Lex Icon. I usually cannot stand this style of growling, but it fits so perfectly on this album. In fact, it is precisely this type of congruency which makes this album one of the most treasured in my collection. When Lex and Sarah exclaim, "But still the sun refused to move!" during my favorite track, "Bringer of the Sixth Sun", absolute chills run down my spine as the vocal delivery and lyrical content work with the instrumentation to create a truly grandiose, larger than life, epic sound. At times, Nexus Polaris sounds like THE definitive dark opera.

This neo-classically melodic sound is precisely what will have these songs so lodged in your head that you will find yourself humming the riffs and singing the lyrics even when you are not listening to the album; not a common effect of black metal.

This memorable quality is created by absolutely stellar musicianship, from the absolutely stellar Hellhammer on drums, Sverd on keyboards, and dual guitar attack of Blackheart and Astennu. At times, these axemen truly recall memories of such classic double attacks as Hanneman and King, and Smith and Murray. With these galloping riffs, Sverd offers up plenty of keyboard runs which echo the piano stylings of history's most well-known composers. At other times, he simply provides the eerie vampiric atmospherics most commonly associated with black metal. Regardless, one of the strongest selling points of this album in my opinion is how prominently the keys are featured. While they never suffocate the more traditional metal drums and guitars, they are always audible, and this album would not be nearly as good without them.

Now, do we even need to discuss Hellhammer given that we all know that everything he touches turns to gold? Of course we do. This is my favorite album featuring Hellhammer. Considering the heavy black metal leanings, relentless double-bass blasts are present, and we all know nobody plays double-bass like Hellhammer. What I like about his performance on this album is the subtle precision and style he attacks the rest of his kit with. After your first epiphany with this album, go back and listen to it again, trying hard just to listen to the drums. I think Hellhammer may perhaps be underrated in that he so meticulously, successfully, and effortlessly adds such small touches which have dramatic effects on the music.

Before ending this review, I must come back to what makes this album so cherished in the metal community: the uncanny way in which this band pulled together all the ingredients in the most perfect way. On tracks like "Nexus Polaris" the listener is immediately sucked into a black hole of galloping guitars and drums, punctuated by synthesizer bell effects and polarized clean vocals and growls. The effect may be desrcibed as a Dimmu Borgir/Cradle of Filth dramatization with the crediblity and earnestness of Sons of Northern Darkness Immortal.

Easily the most remarkable aspect of this album is that this originality and infectious style is present on every single track. I can honestly say that this is one of the few albums in my large collection that is placed in the CD player and played the entire way through. There are no weak moments on this album. While Kovenant did not impress me with any of their other albums, I will fight to the death their importance in the progression of extreme metal because Nexus Polaris represents a sound which, upon its release, had never been heard before. And more importantly for the solidification of this album's place in the annals of metal, Nexus Polaris also represents a sound which will never be replicated in the future either.

Reinforcing my new respect and enjoyment of black metal.......2005-05-05

What can I say, this album is fantastic. The amazing guitar work, the way the synth/piano compliments the music, Hellhammer's drumwork is OUTSTANDING and the operatic vocals...wow, this record is a masterpiece, I recommend this to any fan of any kind of metal, because it's cohesive enough to work as a gateway and strong enough to leave a legendary mark in the world of black metal.

Black Metal Masterpiece.......2005-02-19

The Covenant's Nexus Polaris is a layered and complex album with superb production that has set the standard for years to come. From Lex Icon's searing vocals to the majesty of Steinar Sverd Johnsen's beautiful keyboards to the blistering drum mastery from Hellhammer, this album is quite possibly one of my favorites ever. The bands sound is so cohesive on this album that every song sounds like a new masterpiece, never treading over the same path all the while pushing a new threshold in every aspect. Lex's vocals shine on every song while Sverd's keyboards enhance every track, especially his piano work on Bizzare Cosmic Industries which would later set the mold for his piano work on Star-Crossed from the album The Sham Mirrors by Arcturus. The layered guitars of Astennu and Blackheart mesh together perfectly and create a dark atmosphere that has become The Covenant's signature sound on this album. Topping it all of is Sarah Jezebel Deva's soaring vocals floating in and out of the album, but never making it too effeminate even for the most hardcore black metal fan. In fact, I consider this one of her most amazing vocal performances from any band she has ever sang for.

Nexus Polaris will reshape and remold the way you perceive black metal in general, and will leave you wanting more. The only thing I still cannot grasp is that this album was released 8 years ago, definitely engraving their place in the history books for many, many years.

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