NUCLEUS TORN are a band that have been blending different styles of music together to create idiosyncratic, intriguing music for just shy of two decades. There's music is interesting, diverse and incredibly experimental, incorporating several different instruments into their sound. Their latest full length, "Neon Light Eternal", is a great example of their sound and how they are pushing musical boundaries in the best way possible.

The first of the three tracks on here, "A Declaration of Mistrust", is an absolutely monolithic track, spanning close to twenty three minutes. It's a song that builds slowly, initially being based around some great vocals and some sparse instrumentation. It gradually morphs into a dark, eerie piece of acoustic music, which combines a variety of different instruments, from drums to piano to violins, with an excellent result. There's some amazing, sublime guitar lines as well that, although used on occasion, really stand out in the overall mix when they do appear. Harsher, distorted guitar lines and much denser Folk instrumentation seep into the mix, and the music becomes far more engrossing for the listener. It ebbs and flows between more structured, hook laden sections and some equally powerful motifs that rely more upon a more minimalist, measured approach that has a strong, ambient quality to it. After this sprawling musical epic, the listener is treated to "Nothing Between You And Death"; this song is significantly more aggressive and ferocious than its predecessor, and characterised by oppressive, crushing guitars and authoritative drumming. The hooks on display here are jarring, dissonant and creepy, but work incredibly well with the overall feel and tone of the music on this number. The third and final offering, "Street Lights Fail", is also the shortest, and perhaps the most enduring on the whole record. This is, again, a much more relaxed, sublime affair centred around acoustic sections and great vocal lines. This is a very good way to close an excellent album, in a blaze of atmospherics and eerie yet memorable music.

This is a really interesting album with lot of different elements in it that work really well together, from Folk to Metal to Ambient, and gel together really well. If you're a big fan of the experimental and the avant-garde, then this is a record that is well worth checking out, along with the rest of the bands excellent back catalogue.