So to be honest I have never heard of this band before, and what sold me was the cool artwork, so I went into this with no real expectations, just a fancy for the artwork.
What I was given was some pretty decent Finnish black metal from an apparently well established group. Acting as Azaghal's ninth full length, Nemesis is a noisy action packed black metal assault, chock full of over-driven guitars, pretty decent vocals and drums that actually don't suck! Granted this is nothing ground-breaking or state of the art, but it is definitely fun and interesting to listen to, and considering how many terrible black metal acts there are these days who deliver terrible production and half-ass attempts, Azaghal have graced us with a quality piece of evilness. For those who are unfamiliar with the band, the band can be broken down simply: the vocals are a good mixture of Alexi Laiho and Shagrath, which I know are terrible names to mention but it makes sense to me. The guitars are nice and crisp, and while they could be a bit more dense and power driven, they fill the background properly and have some quality leads thrown in to the stereotypical black metal riffs that are expected from this style of music, and hell there is even a clean interlude or two thrown in to change the pace up. The bass is pretty much non-existent as to be expected, but it wouldn't fit well in this to have a dominating bass line thrown into the mix. And last but not least comes the drums, which unlike many competitors are real and actually decently tuned: the kick is a nice thud, the cymbals are evenly distributed in sound and pitch and the snare fits along with the whole concoction. There are some keys and effects thrown in throughout the album and they only add to the flavor, but aren't really a big part of the sound.
What kept me listening to Nemesis was that it never got boring, which I have happen alot with modern black metal in general. And while like I said earlier there is nothing really out of the box with this release, it keeps your attention drawn with many different speeds and directions, all while holding true to a singular approach and overall sound, and what I mean by this is that throughout the album you're presented with intense face ripping assaults, glacial almost doom like interludes and even symphonic ambienty sections, but never once do you question who's playing behind the giant mass that is Azaghal. So if you're into black metal and don't have a stick up your ass, check it out, if you go through your black metal with a fine toothed comb, you might not be that impressed with this release.
SHIT RATING: GOOD
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