NFD last saw the light of day about a decade ago, formed from the ashes of first The Fields of The Nephilim incarnation and Sensorium, with Peter White as the singer, Chris Milden as guitarist and Luca Mazzucconi as drummer.
For the first time since 2014, the band is resurfacing … with an brand new EP with new material and a number of remixes by some musical heroes.
Their music lies somewhere between Gothic-Rock and Gothic Metal and the remnants of the ashes of The Fields Of The Nephilim are clearly audible. In fact, NFD sounds very much like it.
So one knows know what to expect: drawn-out songs with many changing atmospheres and tempo changes.
‘Surrender To My Will (The Demon and The Witch)’ guarantees almost 9 minutes of enjoyable gothic rock entertainment at the outset. Out of the silence this song emerges with an nice intro. Synths and an entertaining synth melody roll out the red carpet for the pertinent guitars. Sturdy heavy guitars. What else did you expect? Peter's voice is also really reminiscent of TFOTN. Anyway: we are drawn into the song for nine minutes with guitar solos halfway that sound good and very technical. Towards the end of the song, all systems are go…. All the way. Relentless but so blissfully compelling. Even if there were 13 songs like this in a dozen, no one would mind.
Then follows ‘To Find My Heaven’. A song with the same ingredients, resulting in the same kind of finger licking Gothic Rock. It sounds so recognisable and familiar and still it remains captivating. The guitars are a bit quieter at the start, only to take over control halfway through in yet another, over six and a half minute long, rocking song! Towards the end it even leaned towards Melodic Metal. The song undergoes a musical metamorphosis, again finger-licking good, especially for fans of Gothic Rock with drawn-out guitar solos! And even more epic lashes with ‘Static On My Soul’, which is a great dragging song. Perfect for smoke-shrouded dancing people with pointed boots. Again good for about 6 minutes entertainment, Wide-spun, extremely dark and with dangerously roaring guitars. Towards the end they fold back to a kind of Gothic Metal in terms of rhythm guitars. And no matter how classic the structure of the songs might seem, it doesn’t get boring. The variation, changing rhythms, strong passages alternated with more subdued fragments: it works!
NFD has also included two alternate versions of ‘Surrender to My Will: the No Mercy version’ as well as the ‘Original Sin’ version. Nice guitar song but in my opinion not adding much value to this release. The same goes for the alternative version ‘To Find My Heaven' that is only captivating because of the great guitar solo work. Nothing more, nothing less …
However the two remixes are more fascinating. One version is by Mark Gemini Thwaite. The man who provided his musical services to The Mission and Peter Murphy, amongst others. The MGT remix of ‘Surrender To My Will’ sounds more bombastic not least due Thwaite's virtuoso additional guitar playing.
Ben Christo (guitarist with Sisters Of Mercy – Night By Night and Diamond Black, amongst others) remixed the same song. He makes a slightly more sluggish sounding version of it. The guitars are more melodic and sound a bit edgier.
NFD is back! NFD breathes Gothic rock of the best kind. When they release their fully-fledged album and appear on festival posters, this boy will be there!