### Nembience: Through times of despair

#### 04/05/10 || Altmer

Fuck yeah, some death metal. I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time – the day when death metal would pop up in my to-review list. I’ve done pretty much every genre except death and thrash metal, and this platter seems to combine the two. In quite a good way even. In fact this is actually a worthwhile lookout for those of you into this style of music, because it’s a deathrash album done (mostly) immaculately.

Don’t worry, they’re still Danes, they’re not close to unseating Sweden from its lofty death metal throne. But they could probably give most of them a run for their money, were it not for their clean vocalist. Seriously, the clean vocals are an abhorrence on this record. Thankfully they pop up on only three songs, and don’t completely ruin the album, but in general, it’s almost tragic. Where did they find this fucko and why did they think it was a good idea to let him sing? Anyhow, there’s mostly growled vox for the rest on the album, which is serviceable enough, but really not the main attraction. In fact, the vocals are pretty much the only thing keeping this from being amazing as opposed to “pretty okay”.

It’s a shame cos the rest of this platter is actually quite ace when you think about it. There’s meaty riffs with a lot of punch all over the album. The songs kinda blend in without variation, but the riffs keep everything tied together – you can put this album on without it getting annoyingly boring or anything. You know what I mean here? It’s all good, it’s all quality music, it’s done the right way, but it just doesn’t spark my goat. It’s like that with all of this record. I like it, I just don’t love it. I could always dig this to some extent, but I don’t want to drop my pants and wank to this.

In other words, if great death/thrash metal with mediocre-to-awful vocals is your thing, check this one out pronto. If not, tread with caution and give it a cursory spin on their MySpace before you spend your hard-earned bucks on this disc.

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Casket Records
- Website: Nembience MySpace
- Band
- Kenneth Deby: vocals
- Jakob Lykkels: bass
- Fore Crug: guitars
- Martin Rasmussen: guitars
- Peter Mathiesen: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. The Worst Is Yet To Come
- 02. Victim Of Failure
- 03. Damnation
- 04. From Hell To Eternity
- 05. Shadows
- 06. Visions Of Decay
- 07. Towards Extinction
- 08. Grief
- 09. Everything Will Perish
- 10. Lifeless But Breathing