NEMUS ANIMA is a one-man melodic black metal project formed in Autumn in 2023 in Vaasa, Finland. That's when Topi Karhunen started to write his first debut album Hatred embodiment. He had played in few metal bands before but now was the time to write his own music under his own conditions.  Topi's main instrument is guitar but he also recorded vocals, bass, synth/orchestration by himself and did drum tracks on a computer. The style is melodic black metal with atmospheric synths and orchestrations.  Darkness and melancholy is the core of the music.

“Mother’s Grief” is first. The guitars are scratchy, and the vocals harsh. The riff pattern is fairly simple, but does have some melodic elements, especially in the clean instrumental passage. “Invocation” has a more spirited sound from the main riff. The vocals are whispered at times, giving the music a harrowing edge to it. There are also some lighter symphonic elements present. “Feeding succubus” has a good combination of aggressive tones with more somber ones. The drums go into a feeding frenzy as they multiply with beats, but I can’t tell if they are programmed or not. Either way, they thicken up the sound. “Malediction” has a more depressive sound, but the composer seems to be running out of ideas, as this one barely gets off the ground.

“Dreaming of their demise” is unfortunately another forgettable track. Topi puts all of the required elements into the music, but the final product lacks energy. “devolution” begins with sober sounding clean guitars that shift quickly into another lackluster sound. “Calling” has some deeper sounds in the main riff, and a little more of this would go a long way, but the vocals are overly screeching. “Wounds” closes the album. The opening sound has some psychedelica in it, as well as a defeatist sound. Old wounds heal slowly. The album had a few moments of creativity, but overall, lacked in imagination and proper songwriting. I hate to put it this way, but many of the riffs were generic and the vocals were sung without passion.