“First Birth of the Cruel Nymph” appeared on the concept album Csejthe, which was directly inspired by our eponymous novel written shortly before. It was initially self-released as demo in 1992 and later reissued on CD in 1995 with two bonus tracks by the Californian label Wild Rags Records.
The song deals with the first earthly incarnation explored in Csejthe of the abysmal, tenebrous, and negative principle that we called “Evilution”, in our view the feminine equivalent of the Avestan Aŋra Mainiiu, the Evil Spirit in Zoroastrianism. Evilution refers also to the thought that the true sense of History may be not constant progress, but entropy ending in a conclusive, supreme dissolution.
In Csejthe, The Evilution principle, absolute antithesis of goodness and light, is at the start made flesh in the semi-legendary female Pharaoh Nitocris (spelled also Nitokris), historically portrayed by the ancient Egyptian priest Manetho as “braver than any man of her time”, “noblest and loveliest of the women of her time, of fair complexion” and “most beautiful of all the women, blond-haired with rosy cheeks”, but considered male by a few modern authorities. Greek historian Herodotus’s account tells also that she once invited the murderers of his brother to a sumptuous banquet, and that with the assistance of the Nile she ruthlessly killed them by drowning. She finally committed suicide by asphyxia in a chamber full of hot ashes to escape vengeance, and some modern stories claim that her ghost still haunts the third pyramid at Giza in search of prey.
Horror writer H.P. Lovecraft briefly mentioned Nitocris in two short stories too, depicting her in particular as a beauteous subterranean ghoul-queen, but with half of her face being eaten away by rats, and ruling with her spouse the Pharaoh Khephren over composite mummies and other monstrosities. He added that she was previously buried alive. By the way, Celtic Frost’s song “Morbid Tales” is also based on the Lovecraftian fictional character of Nitocris, and names one cosmic entity belonging to the so-called Cthulhu Mythos. All these sinister perspectives about this Egyptian Queen persuaded us to make her the primal personification of the Evilution principle in the concept album and short story Csejthe.
“I know that light is not for me, save that of the moon over the rock tombs of Neb, nor any gaiety save the unnamed feasts of Nitokris beneath the Great Pyramid; yet in my new wildness and freedom I almost welcome the bitterness of alienage.” – H.P. Lovecraft, The Outsider.
However, we discovered much later during an operative work that she is a real feminine entity, capable of acting as psychopomp and closely related to the dead.
“First Birth of the Cruel Nymph” is dedicated to Νιτωκρις.
First Birth of the Cruel Nymph – Bandcamp
Mordor were at the time of this recording:
Scorh Anyroth: voice, guitar, machines
Dam Gomhory: machines, voice
Opale Ablasorh: female voice
Aripa Sataneï: female backing vocals
Recorded and mixed at Dark Sound Studio in 1991/92. Remixed in 1994/95 for Wild Rags Records.