[ Recensioni / Reviews ]
NIMH: Nine Years of Decadence (CD 2026 - Fluttering Dragon)
“Nine Years of Decadence” is the latest album by Italian musician Giuseppe Verticchio under his project NIMH, released via Fluttering Dragon Records. The album compiles fourteen tracks composed, performed, and recorded between 2017 and 2025. The album title, which refers to this period of time, points to a perceived decline in culture, humanity, and morality — a transformation the world has been undergoing for nearly a decade. While this decline has long been in motion, it seems to have accelerated in recent years, giving the impression of a world abandoned, left to drift without guiding principles. The gate depicted on the cover art, a photo by Francesco Ponzano, suggesting a long-forgotten and deserted place, mirrors this sentiment. Locked and heavy with buried memories, it stands as a threshold between the known and the unknown, between past and present, or perhaps an uncertain future.
“Ending Mirage”, the opening track, with its atmospheric yet rough soundscape, embodies lives constructed upon dreams and fragile hopes. Perhaps the truth has now been revealed, bringing this illusion to an end. Perhaps our eyes are finally open, allowing us to choose our own direction rather than follow what has long dictated us.” The Last Moments of Agony” unfolds within a different sonic landscape — more cinematic, more immersive. It feels like existing inside pain itself, where perception is blurred and reality becomes indistinct. The fragmented, almost unintelligible voices reinforce this disorientation, as if thoughts are dissolving before they can fully form. Gradually, the sound fades, as though, moments later, everything has vanished into silence.
As Giuseppe Verticchio expresses his reflections on the present time through his music, I felt compelled to ask him directly what specifically led to the creation of “N.T.E (Not This Europe)”: “You ask me specifically, ‘What is disappointing about Europe nowadays?’ and I could answer very succinctly, ‘Almost everything.” Let me start by saying that I feel very “European”, that I have nothing against Europe. But as a simple ‘everyday’ observer of a European country, Italy, which unfortunately shares many situations with many other European countries, I want to condemn what appears to be a ‘suicidal’ political vocation from almost every point of view. Economic, financial, health, social, labor policies, devastating domestic policies, absurd squandering of public money, senseless constraints, and even crazier international policies. Every day, we witness the indifference and progressive “de facto” erasure of citizens’ fundamental rights.”
The soundscape in “Tolerance Is Subservience” grows increasingly harsh and abrasive, as if embodying the urgency to resist and refuse submission to so-called powers. It feels like a call to protest — a refusal to remain silent or be passively directed. The following three tracks share a similar conceptual and sonic atmosphere. Begins with being silent and then gradually surrendering to the new concept of victory. Yet this choice ultimately leads to becoming “Resigned To The Fall”, and the decadence of humanity. To avoid falling into this trap, one must remain “Solid Not Fluid”, resistant to dissolution in a world that constantly pressures us to bend. “This Land Is My Land (Song For Natives)”, another piece that is deeply connected to the recent conditions, its atmosphere feels heavy and shadowed as Giuseppe Verticchio himself elaborates: “In Europe, we are witnessing the daily destruction and systematic erasure of everything that is local culture, tradition, customs, habits. Much of this is the direct consequence of uncontrolled illegal immigration (one of the various forms of ‘suicide’ I mentioned), which has made daily life and survival difficult, sometimes impossible, not only for ‘natives’, who fight their own personal ‘war’ every day in the streets, in the workplace, in hospitals, but also for that large proportion of regular immigrants of good will.”
“Tears Underwater”, one of my favorite tracks on the album, carries the weight of unresolved grief and the burden of our inner conflicts. It evokes a moment most of us have lived through — those times when we hide our tears, when we don’t want anyone to see our vulnerability. In such moments, we feel “Exclusive, Not Inclusive”, isolated within our own emotional boundaries. With its sorrowful yet delicate melody, the track deeply resonates with how I feel these days: a mixture of agony, loneliness, and fear of the future — a sensation of being a stranger on this planet. Next track “Quiet Song for White European Soldiers” according to Giuseppe Verticchio is dedicated to the millions of European citizens who fight their “daily war.”
The album concludes with “I’m So Tired (The Last Song)”, a track that carries a noticeably different atmosphere from the others. Unlike the heavier, more oppressive soundscapes that precede it, this piece conveys a sense of movement and not remaining still. Yet this dynamism stands in subtle contrast to its title, which encapsulates the exhaustion that follows witnessing and enduring the chaos of the world. “I would like to point out that although personal thoughts and situations obviously inspire the titles of my tracks, my intention was actually to express more “general” concepts that everyone can interpret and consider based on their own experience and life situation, since some themes do not have a single historical and geographical reference, but can be widely extended to historically and geographically different situations and contexts”, Giuseppe Verticchio mentioned. 9/10
- Pegah - Blessed Altar Zine
Emerging from late-’90s Rome, NIMH—the long-running project of Giuseppe Verticchio—returns with a brooding, stylistically evolved ambient work with Nine Years of Decadence that drifts from ethno-spiritual roots into bleak, isolationist soundscapes steeped in tension, melancholy, and cinematic depth.
:: Ritual decay in expansive sound ::
NIMH (Giuseppe Verticchio’s musical project) was born in the late 1990s in Rome. Verticchio is a versatile and constantly challenging sound artist who has developed a substantial back catalog over the years, navigating rich, spacious ambient realms, ecstatic droning soundscapes, and dark ritualism shaped by processed acoustic elements and roots in Eastern spirituality. He has collaborated with notable acts such as Maurizio Bianchi and Rapoon, and also leads several side projects.
Like other recent releases published on Zoharum, this new album marks a stylistic transition initiated more than a decade ago. It represents a slight departure from NIMH’s earlier ethno-beatific ambient works built on traditional instruments from Asia’s ancestral cultural cradle. In other words, the album feels like a return to the roots of bleak ambient isolationism, though enriched with expanded sonic explorations.
As the title suggests, the music follows a brooding path, reflecting on global issues and the human condition. The album opens with the spiritually ascending, hypnotic, and ominous “Ending Mirage.” Whether this is an implicit reference to Vidna Obmana’s album of the same name is uncertain, though it seems unlikely. Following the well-crafted post-industrial patterns of the second track, we are delicately carried into the lamenting and blissful “N.T.E.,” which unfolds like a cinematic elegiac hymn against war and its irreversible damage.
:: Cinematic desolation, deeply human ::
The rest of the album maintains equally consistent atmospheric textures, as heard in the chilling, reverberated “Succumbing to the New Conquistadores” and the heavily distorted yet luminous “Resigned to Fall.” It closes with emotional, fluid guitar tones sustained by steady drum pulses. “Nine Years of Decadence” alternates between oppressive, mournful, suspenseful passages and detached yet melodically repetitive anthems.
This is a well-crafted and diverse ambient release, imbued with dark, undulating accents and shrouded in a veil of coldness, tension, and melancholy. It is not your usual dark ambient album—its direction is closer to CMI’s wounded, melodic gothicism than to Cryo Chamber’s cinematic spaciousness, for comparison. Easily recommended for fans of blackgaze-tinged atmospheres, noise music, instrumental dusk-lit droning guitar evanescence, and Lovesliescrushing.
- Philippe Blache - Igloomag
Entrare in "Nine Years of Decadence" è come varcare la soglia di una casa in rovina, dove ogni stanza conserva echi di un passato tormentato. Non c'è musica qui per allietare o rassicurare: ogni suono è un frammento di ossessione, un respiro affannoso, un'ombra che striscia tra muri di silenzio e spettri di rumore. Nimh costruisce un mondo sonoro che non ammette tregua, in cui la luce sembra sempre distante e il buio ha consistenza.
L'album sembra scaturire da un diario segreto, ma uno scritto con mani tremanti, tra rabbia e stanchezza, tra rassegnazione e una sottile volontà di ribellione. Le tracce si avvicendano come corridoi tortuosi, ognuno con il proprio peso di memoria e decadenza, e l'ultima, "I'm So Tired (The Last Song)", si posa come un cuscino freddo sul viso dell'ascoltatore: un'eco di resa che tuttavia lascia intravedere una fragile, silenziosa speranza.
Ciò che colpisce non è solo l'oscurità, ma la densità emotiva che permea ogni piega della musica. Non è un ambient qualunque, è un terreno dove il dolore quotidiano e l'inquietudine esistenziale diventano materia, plasmata con precisione chirurgica. Le tracce raccolte negli anni tra il 2017 e il 2025 si fondono qui in un unico flusso, un fiume lento e implacabile che trascina con sé frammenti di ricordi e visioni crepuscolari. Questo disco non è per chi cerca conforto: è per chi può sopportare il peso del vuoto e accogliere l'ombra come compagna di viaggio. È un'esperienza che scuote, che lascia segni invisibili ma indelebili, e che, paradossalmente, mostra la resistenza possibile di chi cammina sul bordo della propria distruzione senza cedere completamente.
"Nine Years of Decadence" è un'opera che respira il tempo e la fatica, un monumento oscuro alla fragilità e alla resilienza umana. Chi vi si immerge rischia di perdersi, e forse proprio per questo, alla fine, intravede la sottile linea tra il crollo e la sopravvivenza. (Rating: 9)
- Cesare Buttaboni - Darkroom Magazine
Al di là di quanto suggerito dal titolo, quest’album è il risultato di un processo interiore e visionario alquanto complesso e sviluppato per diversi anni. Tale ricerca sonora, un po’ nel dark-ambient un po’ nell’elettronica sperimentale in genere, ha fatto sì che Giuseppe Verticchio riuscisse ad imporsi a livello internazionale per il proprio approccio elitario e la sinistra cancellata in copertina, che di sicuro apre a qualcosa di oscuro e pericoloso, non è altro che la raffigurazione di uno stato d’animo che lo ha portato a comporre materiale più vario rispetto al passato.
Volendo partire dal fondo ovvero dalla spettacolare ‘I’m So Tired (The Last Song)’ si potrebbe pensare a ‘Nine Years Of Decadence’, chiamato a riassumere sessioni compositive per varie compilation dal 2017 al 2025, come una naturale conseguenza di ‘Before And After Silence’ - nel frattempo Nimh è uscito, sempre per Fluttering Dragon, con la collaborazione con Onasander ‘Unveiled Lights’ – ma in realtà c’è molto di più.
I quattro minuti iniziali di ‘Ending Mirage’ – sulla seminale ‘Anthology Of Post Industrial And Experimental Music From Italy’ di Unexplained Sounds Group - e ‘Tolerance Is Subservience’ trasmettono più delle altre tracce la potenza e la crudezza di questo lavoro mentre ‘N.T.E. (Not This Europe)’, seppur in un contesto differente, mi ha riportato alla mente il feroce messaggio di ‘Brucia Europa Brucia’ dei Pankow, quando al microfono si mise per breve tempo Gianluca Becuzzi. ‘The Last Moments Of Agony’ e ‘Resigned To The Fall’ sono infine lo specchio, rotto naturalmente, di un declino inarrestabile, dell’oblio della ragione, della negazione dell'ovvio e della realtà.
Un declino che ha spinto all’abbandono di ogni forma di lucidità e razionalità, oltre che ad una incomprensibile vocazione al martirio e all'autodistruzione. Uno spettrale fervore cinematico, pervaso da accenti cupi e avvolto da un velo di gelida tensione.
- Lorenzo Becciani - Suffisso Core