Here's some brutal death metal from France that combines the early 90's sound with the more modern groove-laden approach. Musically there's a good deal of tremolo picking speed and slow mosh breaks, vocally things range from guttural growls to faster midrange screams, etc. There's a little bit of melody at times, but it doesn't get too generic as far as sounding like the Swedish stuff or anything like that. I mean, they're not exactly the most original band on the planet anyway, but I'm glad they're straying from that path. In the middle of "Phoenix Resurrectio" they even drop a crazy clean break with some spoken vocals that definitely shows a more promising and diverse direction for the band. The production is okay. The only thing that really gets on my nerves is that the drums sound like a drum machine. They're rigid as hell and cut through the mix like a knife through warm butter. Everything down to the cymbals sounds fake. Damn triggers. The vocals sound great, that's the strongest point actually. The bass is there but gets lost in the shuffle, and even though the guitars are heavy the distortion is just too choppy and dry to really work out for their style. The CD comes in a black and white slipcase with some interesting collaged and layered imagery. I can't make out all of what's going on but it looks like there is some old architecture involved, some apocalyptic images from classic paintings, and that sort of thing. It looks rather cool. The only thing I dislike are the tacky fonts on the back cover, because the band logo blends nicely with the style of artwork, and those fonts are the only thing that breaks up the visual flow. No lyrics are included, of course. All in all this isn't bad, but it's nothing that catches my attention so much. With a better recording and a bit more experimentation I could see this band doing some interesting things, but this brief promo doesn't offer very much to make me curious.
[self-released]
Running time - 11:37, Tracks: 3
[Notable tracks: Phoenix Resurrectio]
7th Nemesis - http://www.7thnemesis.fr.st
