ALBUM REVIEW: Atmosfear – Nobody
Black metal is a genre that has often utilised folk music within it in order to add something extra to what can, at times, be a fairly monotonous sound, piercing the darkness with a little light. Finland’s NOBODY draw very heavily from folk music for their sound, substituting raw, tremolo picked guitars for sparing acoustics exclusively. Their debut EP, Gospel of the Goat, showed plenty of promise upon it s release in January, and now, hot on the heels of that record comes the band’s first album, Atmosfear, an album that continues this sparse, minimalist approach, with mixed results.
Stronger Than Blood starts the album proper with a great use of majestic guitars, a style that is at odds with the harsh, whispered vocals that accompany them. This contrast works well, providing a great start to the album. Ruthless Vicar follows in a similar vein, with subdued vocals and a sublime atmosphere, providing a brooding offering with triter moments that sound very impressive. The next two songs, both called Anubis, add to the record for very different reasons. Whereas the first makes use of a crisp guitar sound and a more varied, immersive vocal range, the second, slightly briefer track injects some soundbites into the mix, giving this a more dramatic sound and a much more adventurous side, and some excellent guitar work. Both tracks are great, and add a little depth to the sound.
The Dark Marquis, with its soaring, medieval feel and coarse vocals, is another track that is built around great guitars and clashing, slightly weak, vocals, that take away from the power this song might have had were it an instrumental. The Great Stink begins incorporating some haunting synth sections into the sound, more evocative of dungeon synth, making this a great addition to the album. Unholy Intoxication with its dark, galloping rhythms, proves to be another song that showcases a layered, imaginative guitar playing style that provides an energised and driven sound, ending far too quickly. Atmosfear, a rather lengthy affair by this album’s standards, has catchy, dancing leads, paired with rolling rhythms that cross celtic folk music with acoustic rock elements. Dreams And Imaginations, another pair of songs that manage to develop this influence further, with angelic melodies that, again, lose much of their emotive weight when buried under the accompanying shrill vocals. The second of these songs has more traditional black metal approach to the guitars, with speed-driven tempos and diminished chords peppering this song with bleak moments.
The fleeting, ambience and percussion heavy Lover’s Lament gives way to Orgasm Of Blasphemy, a powerful and energetic piece of blackened folk that proves to be most intense and even forceful numbers on the whole album, ebbing and flowing between slower moments and jarring ones that possess a lot more substance to them. Uncontainable, a short but eerie interlude, leads seamlessly into the two Visionary tracks, which again provide counterpoints between slick, creative guitars and the arid shrieks of the vocals, which luckily aren’t too far up in the mix, allowing the guitars and the few spartan synth elements that are thrown into fray to carry the music, and the album, to its conclusion, with the minimalist Outro closing the album on a note every bit as atmospheric as the one that opened it.
When it comes to the actual music on this album, there’s very little to find fault with. It’s clear, comparing this with the debut EP, that there’s been a marked increase in production quality, and the subtle addition of minor percussion and synths does help to flesh out the album’s sound significantly, although they are used far too sparingly. Where this album falls down is the vocals. When they are adopting a more whispered, delicate tone, they can be extremely effective, but when the harsher deliveries come into play, it often detracts from the music and brings the tracks down. Nonetheless, this is a definite step up for the band, and if a few minor tweaks are applied to the vocals and the music, then NOBODY could go on to be one of the more interesting and unique acts within the Finnish black metal underground.
Rating: 7/10
Atmosfear is out now via Inverse Records.
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