Neviah Nevi

Neviah Nevi
Tales of Terror
©2009 Wounded Records
HYPERLINK "http://www.myspace.com/nnrocks" www.myspace.com/nnrocks

Hmm, death metal with a female vocalist? Word up. Count me in. Let me preface all this with the fact that I like metal, although certainly some of my frames of reference are a bit outdated. I have listened to the modern stuff, cookie monster vocals, down-tuned guitars, and prefer mine with some variety.

Put in the disc and press play. Heavy, mid tempo with the ubiquitous cookie monster(ess) vocals and drop tuned guitars. Good production, sort of symphonic in areas, overall pretty well done. Better than average lyrics (thanks for printing them in the booklet).

The issue I have with releases like this, is that, they limit themselves. Death metal has a formula like most other genres. I bet I’d really dig these guys/girl if they broke rank occasionally. I like the energy. If they’d ask me (they never do), I’d tell them to mix things up a bit. Hmm, would they be shunned if they put an acoustic break in a song? Would they lose their metal cred if the vocalist occasionally broke from the cookie monster deal? You do get a break in No Escape and it really sounds great, the contrast in the heavy/ethereal just really nails it for me. Towards the 2:00 mark of Pushing Up Daisies there’s a great break (I’m digging it as it reminds me of Hum but that’s likely the drop D tuning) where they again show some contrast in what they’re capable of. The end of Break These Chains breaks down into a solo piano briefly, that’s cool. Elsewhere there are brief snippets of non-CM vocals but largely that’s what you get. Again, the playing is very good, the songs are well constructed and the production sounds more than competent. DeAngela can hold her own vocally, in the growling and non-growling department.

I hate the fact that music has become so genre conscious. The most interesting bands towards the heavy end of the scale are the ones that can mix it up. Even Demon Hunter can throw an acoustic song on an album and not make it sound forced or calculated. Opeth, under the guidance of Steven Wilson, put out a largely acoustic album.
I guess you can’t argue with an artist’s vision. I hear some pretty solid ideas and decent chops in this but I occasionally grow fatigued with the vehicle it’s delivered in.

Fans of this genre are likely to dig this. Call me when they’re in town, I bet I’d enjoy them live,

7.5/10 kilts
DAA