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NEPHREN-KA
The Fall Of Omnius

Kaotoxin (2013)
Rating: 7/10

These French deathsters have been plying their trade since 2006, and finally they’ve gotten round to releasing their debut full-length opus on Kaotoxin Records. Nephren-Ka, who are named after a character from the works of author H.P. Lovecraft, have taken three years to deliver this nine-tracker.

It’s certainly a marked improvement on their 2010 EP Revenge And Supremacy, but whether they’ve done enough to carve out a sure-fire winner this time round only remains to be seen.

After all, Nephren-Ka could be deemed a rather formulaic, albeit rather brutal death metal band that are clearly influenced by the likes of Deicide and Nile – especially with those deathly vocal grunts courtesy of Laurent Chambe – and for the most part this is a no-holds barred death metal by numbers slab that pummels in the drum department to the point of audience submission, such is the frenetic quality of Thibaud Pialoux.

I am rather relieved, however, that Nephren-Ka don’t simply resort to battering ram tactics to annihilate the soul. ‘Mastering The Voice’ – my favourite track on the opus – is king when it comes to time changes and mixing up the pace, with the frothing guitars of Sébastien Briat quite a pleasure to witness, even if the overall sound lacks identity.

Nephren-Ka are a dab hand at inserting segments of melody within those aggressive swamps, and this is where the band sound most effective. When the mid-tempo is destroyed by their more demonic murmurs though, The Fall Of Omnius can become a little too much of a slog. For instance, ‘Legend Of Selim (Pt. 1: The Seeds Of Discord)’ is for the most part a brain-buster that only really makes an impact when the halfway point comes. We hit a nice piece of melody with a soaring solo – while the drums continue to rage – but elsewhere the wall of sound is a rather hard one to hit. ‘The Rise Of Omnius’ becomes an unintelligible blur of drums, growls and hyper guitars, again reminding me of Nile at their most fierce.

What I really like about this opus however, and I’ll say it time and time again, are the unexpected tempo shifts which bring with them unexpected melody – and these less aggressive moods come as welcome relief from the nightmarish pace of, say, ‘Feydakins Storm’, although once again it’s another track that relinquishes us from the relentless to offer us a menu of intriguing bass and down-tuned chug.

The Fall Of Omnius displays enough versatility which bodes well for the future of this band. Clearly they are more at home with their direct approach of blistering musicianship, but Nephren-Ka are dab hands at inserting diversity, and that’s how I like my death metal to be. So, hats off to these guys for an impressive full-length debut.

Neil Arnold

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