Assassins: Black Meddle, Part I
| Assassins: Black Meddle, Part 1 | ||||
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| Studio album by Nachtmystium | ||||
| Released | June 10, 2008 | |||
| Recorded | December 2007 at Volume Studios | |||
| Genre | Black metal, psychedelic rock, stoner metal, experimental rock | |||
| Length | 45:05 | |||
| Label | Century Media | |||
| Producer | Nachtmystium, Chris Black & Sanford Parker | |||
| Nachtmystium chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| IGN | 9/10 |
| Pitchfork Media | 8.9/10 |
| PopMatters |   |
Assassins: Black Meddle, Part 1 is the fourth full-length album by Chicago band Nachtmystium. It was released via Century Media Records in the United States on June 10, 2008, and by Candlelight Records in Europe on June 23, 2008. The record was recorded in December 2007 at Sanford Parker's Volume Studios. The album contains such experimental musical flirtations as saxophones and other non-black metal musical "meddling".
Blake Judd, the band’s co-founder and front-man wanted to create an album that focused on experimental and progressive metal with a black metal influence. Assassins was intended to be the band's departure from the traditional black metal genre. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Judd, the band's founder, claims the idea for the album's name came from his desire to reestablish Nachtmystium's image in the music community. He states, "The idea of 'Assassins' is that an assassin kills, gets rid of or destroys something. It's not directly about us. We want to assassinate all these preconceived notions about where the metal community feels we belong in music and want to do our own thing. And what we do is black meddle." The album's subtitle itself incorporates the title of Pink Floyd's 1971 breakthrough album Meddle, while the album's opening track, "One of These Nights", is a homage to the Meddle's "One of These Days".
Judd recruited producer Sanford Parker to lead the album’s production and audio engineering, and veteran drummer Tony Laureano. Other guest artists were featured on the album, including Bruce Lamount of Yakuza, who provided a saxophone solo on the track “Oceanborn”. The band uploaded "Your True Enemy", a song from Assassins, onto their MySpace page in February 2008, and the title track "Assassins" in April 2008.
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