### Nation Despair: Exitium mundi

#### 26/03/12 || gk

Finland’s Nation Despair are a young four piece who formed in 2008 and have released a bunch of demos and EPs with this being their latest offering and 4th release. I thought I was in for some Lamb of God type band when the opening couple of minutes of “Purified” hit but the song quickly changes gears and heads off towards a more modern melodic death metal sound. Dark Tranquility and particularly their “Damage Done” album seems to a big inspiration for this band and there are a few nods thrown at Soilwork as well. There isn’t anything really original here but the songs aren’t bad at all. The vocals are quite good, the riffs are mostly catchy and the band has a good grasp of song writing dynamics. While the music is still a bit too melodic for me, the band sound like good musicians and have a nice mix of melodic guitar lines and catchy grooves. Overall, while this EP is not essential by any means I’d be interested in seeing what they come up with in the future.

6/10 with hope for the future.