After debuting in February MMXX with the release of their self-titled split with Michigan’s Crown of Asteria on highly regarded boutique cassette label Realm and Ritual, lone member Cicatrix has wasted no time in readying its follow-up. Melancholic Waters Ablaze With the Fires of Loss is an emotionally intense paean to grief, regret, and ultimately hope – an album that’s both salt and salve for the wounds of its creator, and for anyone else lured in by its siren songs.

The record is raw, even visceral, with an evolving anguish that often erupts into furious, disconsolate anger, expressed in a harsh distorted rasp through lyrical abstractions reminiscent of such 20th-century modernist poets as T.S. Eliot or Sylvia Plath. Truly desolate melodies traverse barren atmospheres that burst in savagery before receding to more narcotic passages, dripping with a palpable sorrow.

"Continuing to utilise his unique sonic palette that draws as much (if not more) from alternative, goth and myriad other influences as it does from any established DSBM templates, Melancholic Waters is a heartfelt and heart-rending album that exists in a captivating duality – on one hand abrasive and agonized, yet on the other raggedly beautiful; raw and crumbling yet holding itself together with shimmering gossamer thread. It almost brought me to tears at times…Somehow distant yet vital and immediate, it’s just raw and honest enough to be tormented, whilst bright enough to be… hopeful, perhaps." - Black Metal Daily

"The melancholy is alleviated with a glimmer of hope, and we are left with something as rare as a morally uplifting DSBM record. The spiritual dimension is elevated as a musical element [...] but with a stronger focus on the human aspect of nature. Anxiety is, for Nodus Tollens, a basic condition, but it can also be overcome, as the closing number suggests. "Semper ad meliora" means "always for the better", and that is also the feeling this reviewer had when the record ran out." - Devilution

"Melancholic Waters Ablaze With the Fires of Loss really hits a DIY sweet spot [...] "Willowing" sees this play out over its runtime, with the song dancing and surging gently between ascents and descents, but never attempting to blast your brains out with noise too savage. When things are just right, you hear it almost transparently; with Nodus Tollens, the delivery is seamless and beautiful." - Invisible Oranges

"Mournful melodies are topped with paint-stripping vocals. Songs with a more traditional black metal feel give way to extended acoustic guitar jams. “Ad Meilora” starts with chanting and church bells before moving into some lovely clean singing (although with electronic distortion applied) [...] Then the final track provides a gentle background behind guitar lines so jagged that they seem designed to disrupt your brain waves." - Metal Bandcamp

"The music is beautiful and sad — sometimes very intense in its channeling of despair — and it’s bracing and uplifting as well, though its hopefulness always seems tenuous, as hope always does when you’ve been subjected to a multitude of hard lessons. It’s easy to lose yourself in the album, and to stay lost in it, because it never drags and because there always seems to be some arresting change just around the corner." - No Clean Singing

"Throughout the record, Nodus Tollens maintains characteristically DSBM elements but refuses to confine to a single mode of expression. The record is impressively expressive and a real journey through sorrow, grief, and loss is felt throughout, leaving a bittersweet feeling of triumph towards the end [...] its ability to express an overwhelming depth of emotion in several modes is impressive and brings a breath of fresh air into the genre." - V13

"This is a richly shaded album that refuses to be just one thing despite the songs sharing common stylistic themes. The music might be darkly bleak in one moment, or lightly fragile the next, but whatever any particular part of a song might be doing, it all drips with emotion and atmosphere [...] It’s almost too much to bear, but elements of cautious hope and tentative beauty exist here too, providing the first agonising hints that something better might exist somewhere, somehow." - Wonderbox Metal

Cassettes available via Pacific Threnodies: pacificthrenodies.bandcamp.com

CDs available via Trepanation Recordings: trepanationrecordings.bandcamp.com