Artwork by: Gabriel Ferrier (Soir, 1911)

Style: Avant-Garde Metal, Progressive Metal, Atmospheric Black Metal, Modern Classical (Mixed Vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Sadness, Diablo Swing Orchestra, Thy Catafalque
Country: Mexico
Release date: 3 July 2026

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I’m not the biggest fan of nostalgia. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the appeal; I get why people are eager to retreat into art that evokes these “better times” in our deathspiral of a timeline, but the reality is that said times were hardly the romanticized versions we tend to revisit them as. Even if we weren’t hellbent on springboarding ourselves into an early extinction at the behest of a cannibalistic elite, however, I’ve always been a fan of progression. Forward movement. Take a risk, swing big. Do something new with an old style. Even if I don’t like an artist’s or director’s or whoever’s newest approach, I’ll always appreciate that at least they tried rather than playing it safe.

So yeah, nostalgia and me don’t really jive like that. But you know what I do jive with? Nostalghia. The one-man black metal project out of Mexico, helmed by Alex Becerra, has never been one to rest on creative laurels. Since 2020, Becerra has used black metal as a fertile bed upon which to sow compositional and musical seeds, including fragrant clusters of classical instrumentation, creeping vines of electronica, and dewy folk. Considering the project’s prolific pace, the quality of Nostalghia’s crops is worth noting: most bands struggle to scratch fourteen albums in their lifespan, let alone good ones, yet Becerra has managed that in a mere six years while maintaining a winsome consistency even as he tweaks his explorations of tragically romantic and melancholic metal. Departure comes off the heels of last year’s Void Ecstasy, which saw Becerra dabbling with electronic elements to mostly positive results. Does Departure represent another slice of experimentation, or continue down the evolutionary tract set by its predecessor?

The opening minutes of Departure luxuriate the senses with the lush production synonymous with Nostalghia’s output, as rich acoustic strumming backdrops a dramatic building of strings, shakers, and percussion alongside Becerra’s wispy cleans, climaxing with a skittering of classical piano on “Leaving”. The transition between “Leaving” and “Dearly Departed” is a lovely high note, as the piano is taken up by electric guitar and Nostalghia’s black metal bedrock surfaces with melancholic tremolos and blast beats, even as Becerra injects lively Spanish guitar, horns, and clarinet into the mix. Surprisingly, Becerra opts for a larger percentage of cleans on Departure, pushing the harsh vocals into more of a secondary role than on previous releases—though tracks like “Qa Muqu” see Becerra going full-in on his throaty roars and screeches, so it’s not a complete departure. For fans expecting a more “traditional” Nostalghia outing, however, the shift feels worth noting.

Becerra stacks on a veritable surplus of instrumentation beyond the usual metal elements, bringing woodwinds, strings, horns, bells, et cetera to the mix, leading to a sonically diverse yet compositionally uneven record. While I appreciate many of the elements, like the gentle chiming bells and glockenspiel of “The Abyss Whispered” atop the blackened fury, there is an underlying sense of things being slightly out of shape, not quite fitting together as seamlessly as they might. Likewise, “Dearly Departed” and “Uróboros” strain against transitions between ideas, and the overall compositions come across a tad abrupt or out of sync as a result, feeling like whimsical flights of fancy rather than considered shifts into new sonic endeavors. Becerra finds more even footing on ten-minute closer “Offret (including “Ashes Upon Eden”, “By the Corpse of Earth” and “Mercy”)”, shifting from a grand and beautiful, almost Novembers Doom-coded suite into a discordant swirl of instrumentation in the midsection that lends a properly dramatic and oppressive atmosphere before ascending to a joyous, near-Heavenly clamour of bells, brass, and Frida Zavala’s angelic vocalizations to close out the record.

Departure is an apt title for this latest chapter in Nostalghia’s journey. While the work is unmistakably that of Becerra’s, continuing his penchant for beautifully produced avant-garde black metal, and the wider focus on cleans and more varied compositions is welcome, this is the first time I’ve struggled to mesh with his designs. I wish that more of the compositional ideas and implementations felt smoother across the album. Especially when there are so many enticing moments to be had: the dancing bassline and the way the jubilant horns add a brassy drama to the black metal on “Qa Muqu”; the proggy, Gothic dolor coloring “Uróboros” and its slithering descent into jazzy madness; or the entirety of “Offret.” But too often as I began to lock into a song, an abrupt-feeling transition or sudden changeup in time would knock me loose. And that’s a shame, because I love that Becerra, despite churning out albums like a madman (sometimes three in a year), has refused to settle into a rut or begin to sound stale.

So, while Departure may have landed as something of a disappointment for me, I use that word extremely lightly—a disappointing Nostalghia record is, by leaps and bounds, more interesting than what should be expected from a band on their fourteenth album. Becerra proves himself a perpetual motion engine of creative force, finding continuously interesting permutations of avant-garde black metal to experiment with. Hopefully, Becerra’s next release will see all his musical explorations come together with a tighter focus that better complement his already excellent black metal foundations. The good news is, we probably won’t have to wait long to find out. Regardless, in the interim, fans of the band and experimental black metal in general would do well to check in on this latest offering.

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Recommended tracks: Dearly Departed, Qa Muqu, Offret (including “Ashes Upon Eden”, “By the Corpse of Earth” and “Mercy”)
You may also like: Penseés Nocturnes, Maladie, Déhà
Final verdict: 6/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Nostalghia is:
– Alex Becerra (all instruments, vocals)
With guests:
– Valeria Dávila (flute on track 1, clarinet on track 2)
– Frida Zavala (vocals on track 7)