ALBUM REVIEW: Ablaze – NervoChaos
Veterans of the South American extreme metal scene, NERVOCHAOS have had a long and storied career. In a career that has spanned nearly a quarter of a century, the band have crafted their own niche within the death metal scene, rising to international prominence on the back of eight full length records, a handful of demos and EPs, as well as a plethora of splits. Their latest record, Ablaze, although not their strongest outing to date, is a solid slab of dark and aggressive death metal with plenty of great songs on offer, further cementing their legacy as one of Brazil’s leading extreme metal exports.
Necrocult kicks off Ablaze with a rhythmic, grove-laden affair that, with no vocals, manages to be an intense, yet fairly basic, opener, setting the tone for the rest of the record quite well. Demonic Juggernaut, by contrast, is a chaotic and frenzied aural assault with dancing, technical flourishes, which heralds the start of the album proper with brilliant, chunk guitar and bass hooks, dense gutturals and shrill howls, providing a brief yet brilliant offering with lots of great hooks that jump out at you right from the first listen. Feast Of Cain is a much more epic, melodic track, which does a great job of blending catchy lead guitars with powerful, visceral rhythm sections and bellicose, booming vocals, resulting in a very diverse sound that manages to bring in a few different styles of death metal with great effect.
After the fairly forgettable Whisperer In Darkness, the energetic and frenetic Death Rites and the brief yet atmospheric Shamanic Possession, we get to Into Nightside, arguably one of the records strongest cuts. Punishing percussion provides an excellent backdrop to razor sharp, hook- laden guitars and really rabid, thunderous vocals, which all grab the listeners attention right out of the gate, and manages to cram as many riffs and changes of pace within this songs relatively short span to ensure that it sticks in the mind long after the first listen. Cave Bestiam sets a dirge-like, primitive pace that, although solid, doesn’t leave much of a mark on the record, bleeding straight into another interlude in the record in the shape of Dawn Of War, before the bestial burst of brutality that is Mors Indecepta makes its presence known. It may be a brief track, but it proves to be so intense and cacophonous that this short, sharp shock of a song proves to be another album highlight.
Stalker, My Dues and Downfall all prove to be thrash inflected death metal with a dependable rhythmic approach, with each song being carried by the vocals, which lend these three songs much of the aggression and venom. Walk Away is another fantastic song that utilises some interesting lead guitar hooks, and has some of the most impressive and imaginative guitar motifs on the whole record, which give this song a catchy sound that complements the caustic and ferocious edge of the rest of the music. It’s a great effort that sets the listener up very well for the final song on the album. Of Evil And Men starts as a dark and brooding piece of music but gradually morphs into a powerful and aggressive song with lots of great grooves and soaring, hair-raising lead guitars, which makes for a varied and brilliant track, and allows the album to come to a close on a very high note.
Ablaze is by no means a bad album, but a fair few of the songs on here don’t match up to the quality of most of the other tracks, and quite frankly don’t need to be on the album. There’s plenty of great songs on offer, such as Demonic Juggernaut, Feast Of Cain, Into Nightside and Mors Indecepta, but many of the tracks on offer feel more like filler than stand out moments. In all honesty, NERVOCHAOS could very well have cut five or six tracks, plus the short instrumental pieces, and released Ablaze as an EP – and it would have been regarded as one of their best releases. Nonetheless, when this album is good, it’s absolutely fantastic. With any luck, the next record from NERVOCHAOS will see a return to form and be on par with their celebrated earlier records.
Rating: 6/10
Ablaze is set for release June 21st via Hammerheart Records.
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