Out pf print for nearly 30 years!!!! Christ. So happy to have this available again, especially with the four bonus tracks, making this more-or-less the complete discography of The Nefilim's recorded body of work. Featuring McCoy's wonderful, distinct "cyber-occult"art and design under the Sheerfaith name, this disc is beyond recommended if you're a Fields of The Nephilim / Carl McCoy devotee, or even if you're just looking for some brutal, goth rock-infected 90s death metal with an experimental, almost industrial edge. It's fucking sick.

Discussing and dissecting the history of UK goth rock legends The Fields Of The Nephilim is always dicey, as the band (and leading force / founding member Carl McCoy) navigated a minefield of lineup changes, inter-band aggravations, label struggles, and ultimately, changing the name of the band itself. Laying out the band's complete legacy would be a book unto itself, so I'm just revelling in the recent spate of reissues from the Fields of The Nephilim back catalog, all of which has been out-of-print on physical media for years, in some cases decades. That's been a personal issue for me, as Fields is essentially my favorite band of all time. No hyperbole - I've been obsessed with this band and McCoy's activities ever since I did a deep dive into everything I could wrap my ears around sometime in the early 2000s. Already a "goth rock" devotee, I instantly fell in love with the blend of driving gothic-stained hard rock, metallic elements, sprawling psychedelia, lush soundscapes and ritualistic noise experiments and McCoy's incomparable gravel-chewing roar of a voice. The band's deep connections to ceremonial magick, esotericism, and mysticism that permeate every single note of their music just sealed the deal for me. I grabbed every single release of theirs that I could find on CD, but that proved to be harder than I thought it was going to be, as some releases were seriously hard to find on CD (my format of choice), at least without brutalizing my goddamn wallet.

One of the main albums that I'd been hunting for, for my collection, was the somewhat enigmatic 1996 release Zoon. Technically, it's not even a Fields album, which goes back to the confusional nature of their catalog and career. Essentially, Fields Of The Nephilim disintegrated in the early 1990s after a rash of astounding albums and EPs, and Carl McCoy quickly reconvened with a new lineup and vision under the name The Nefilim (note the change in spelling) in 1992. Acting as an entirely new outfit, Carl McCoy brought on members of the UK anarcho-punk and thrash metal scene with bassist Cian Houchin (Legion Of Parasites) and guitarist Paul Miles,who played with UK D-beat legends The Varukers along with the Varukers thrash metal side-project Arbitrater. Rounded out by Simon Rippin on drums, the group brought a screaming metal aggression to the sepulchral Fields Of The Nephilim sound, with the metallic qualities dominating the album alongside McCoy's deep interest in Enochian, Kabbala, Thelemic, and Gnostic concepts. The Nefilim pretty much abandoned the bulk of the "apocalyptic wasteland cowboy" aesthetic that helped make Fields such a visually arresting band, and it was a short run, 1992 to 1996, capped off by the release of Zoon. But man, what an album.

From the industrial-metal thunder of opener "Still Life" and the Fields-esque gothic rock of "Xodus", to the crushing death metal of "Venus Decomposing" and "Penetration", McCoy roars, rages, and croons over the shifting tempos and tides of Zoon. My favorite moments here are when the band seamlessly blends a version of that classic shimmering Fields Of The Nephilim sound with decimating Bolt Thrower-like death metal riffs, fairly simple and straightforward, but insnaely heavy and energetic. And layered with these streams of glitching electronics, thick synth-clouds, and strange ritualistic noises that cloud the atmosphere in a hallucinatory, often horrific haze - the album really highlights McCoy's skill at crafting living, breathing, sinister soundscapes that bleed beautifully into the rest of the songs. Rumbling, apocalyptic ambience and ceremonial loops surge through the album's ten tracks, fully fleshing and filling out the nearly hour-long listen. It's crushing, heart-wrenching, a fully potent version of McCoy's ongoing vision, and possibly one of the best "goth metal" albums of that decade. Seriously, there are moments on here that echo the more experimental, expansive Edge Of Sanity work, but totally unique in the fusion of that driving Fields Of The Nephilim-style psychedelic dark rock with the electronics and earth-shaking double-bass and buzzsaw riifs. And hooks, man...songs like "Shine" and "Melt (The Catching Of The Butterfly)" erupts into an ecstatic, orchestral roar of bass-driven, synth-heavy ritual incantation. Contrast that with the industrial thrash of "Pazuzu (Black Rain)" with McCoy spitting out hair-raising screams, and then there are the proggier, more psychedelic sprawls of "Zoon (Parts 1 & 2) (Saturation)" that are solemn in their beauty and grandeur, pretty damn close to the majesty of McCoy's previous iteration of his band. Followed by the amazing, metallic post-punk-esque power and melody of “Zoon (Part 3) (Wake World)", one of the catchiest songs that ever came from the Nephilim / Nefilim canon. Then, flowing unabated into "Coma"'s closing stream of ambient noise, field recordings, ominous clanking metal and distant whispers that finishes this in one final blast of sound. It's just superb.

Some of the wildest shit on this album / collection comes from the EP tracks included at the end, though. The bonus material consists of the non-album track from the 1995 Xodus EP and the 1996 Penetration EP, along with what appears to be a previously unreleased (I think) technoid thrash remix of "Xodus". The latter of which stomps a hole right through the floor. That "Xodus (Last Rites)" track is bangin' industrial metal , taking elements of the "Xodus” track and reworking them into a vast dronescape that explodes into a kind of Ministry-esque metal-techno, heavy and hypnotically pounding with a massive backbeat raging beneath the chugging staccato metal guitar riffs, swirling electronic mists, and McCoy's enraged roar. The "Xodus (Xcitorium)" track follows suit with a more stripped-down version of that industrial metal attack, with different guitar parts and more electronic / synth noise. Both are pummeling, powerful blasts of techno ecstasy. With "24th Moment", though, McCoy's growling vocals haunt an eerie industrial-tinged soundscape of distant noises, hushed vocals, and droning electronics - it's purely sound-collage, but gorgeous stuff. Almost Tangerine Dream-like at times. And the final track is "Penetration (Bloodless)", another ripping mechanoid death-techno stomper in that Ministry / Angst-era KMFDM vein. Total apocalyptic dance floor euphoria. I love this stuff.

As a side note, for awhile, The Nefilim was kept quite separate from McCoy's other, main band. But at least in later years, he has brought this album into the fold; when I saw Fields Of The Nephilim play in Whitby, UK in 2022, the band included a punishing performance of the album track "Zoon III (Wake World)" in their set list. Man, I was beside myself. So, for me, as much as I love the Elizium-era Fields lineup of Paul Wright / Alexander "Nod" Wright / Tony Pettitt / Peter Yates, this is a crucial side-chapter in the overarching mystic vision of mastermind McCoy. In spite of the acrimony that permeated that time period, I'm glad this chain of events happened, as Zoon continues to stand out as one of my favorite albums of all time.

Released under the "Beggars Arkive" imprint, this expanded reissue of Zoon comes on both CD and vinyl, with both featuring the same gatefold design.