Review: Nemesium – Continua

Nemesium is a quintet of musicians hailing from Victoria, Australia. The band was formed in 2014 and now consists of Clint Williams (vocals), Justin Rhodes (drums), Chris McEwin and Andrew Reid (guitar) and Marcus Ritli (bass). Formed in 2014 the extreme metal outfit’s sole feat of arms up until now is a 2015 EP called Sentient Cognizance. Some five years later it’s time for their first full-length release which is called Continua. It contains twelve songs, spanning just over fifty minutes, which, considering their weapon of choice, could be quite sufficient to get a serious neck strain.

The ball opens with Antecedent, which seems to be an excerpt of a movie ending with the sentence ‘The reason we’re here is that it’s out of control’. Really, I couldn’t find a better way to introduce the tunes Nemesium displays in the next song. No careful introduction, no dragging intro, they just smash the pedal to the metal and mow you down right away with an uncompromising combination of death and black metal that will surely make you move. The merciless guitar riffs and ditto rhythm section wreaks havoc and the vocals of Clint, which are mainly bellowing growls, only add to that. Simply put: This is one hell of a lot of noise. Positively speaking of course. This turns out to be the standard for the majority of the rest of the album. Sure, there is some peace of mind to be found here and there, albeit, apart from the trend-breaking intermezzos, only sporadically.

Those trend-breaking intermezzos, the short instrumentals Continuum and My Final Fight, which is a great piece by the way, provide the necessary points of rest in an otherwise predominantly neck-breaking experience. Try Annihilation Prophecy, Virch or the absolutely epic album closer Relive This Nightmare on for size. Speaking of the album closer, its title offers an advice I’d recommend you to take at heart. There’s also a few less crushing songs, but as always the term less crushing is to be interpreted loosely as their crushing force is still considerable. Very much so even. Examples of this are The Fire and the Flesh and All of Them.

So concluding it’s safe to say the way I described this release earlier is actually spot-on. This most definitely is one hell of a lot of noise, but in all honesty, that does kind of simplify the music these gentlemen produce. The compositions are in fact very well thought-out with the guitars dueling with the drums and bass many a time, while they at other moments are allowed to howl freely, creating chaos in a very pleasant way. Yes, this is definitely extreme metal, death with a generous splash of black and a few pinches of various other genres, so it’s probably not for all to enjoy, especially the faint of heart should approach this with caution. However, if you like your music continuously heavy, at high speed, controlled chaotic and crushing, you really cannot walk past this one. A great release by a promising band!

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