Entity
Null
If you mix Depressive Black Metal with some Doom Metal nasty elements, you'll find a slow, nasty and aggressive form of music with slow paced tempos and many more. It's not a new musical formula. And it means that many things will depend solely on what a band can do. And in the case of NÚLL (also called 0 or O), they created something really interesting on "Entity".
This quintet from Iceland brings a macabre and nasty form of music based on slow tempos mixed with atmospheric touches and some vocals contrast (using very good clean vocals and some screamed shrieks), and an instrumental heavily influenced by the forefathers of Doom Death Metal (especially the aggressiveness tempered with depressive elements from early works from ANATHEMA). The difference is the use of some sad and deep melodies. It's personal and grasping, and the band shows talent on their work. But again the same mistake: such musical expression needs a cleaner and defined sonority, something aggressive and nasty, but in a way that enables the listeners to have a better comprehension of what they're expressing. It's not about to be raw and aggressive, but to be understood.
Musically, "Entity" is filled with some excellent ideas, as can be heard on "None" (very good clean vocals, maybe a feature to be better explored in the future), on the nasty ambience created by the guitars on "Reduced Beyond the Point of Renewal" and "Grasping the Outer Hull of the Tangible", and on "Conjoin the Vacuous". But such crude sonority really turns things difficult for the listeners, what is a great pity. Once more: it's not a matter of sounding organic and/or aggressive, but on a way that anyone could take the best from the band. For now, "Entity" is really a very good set of songs that unfortunately could be even better if the band used a clean insight.
7 / 10
Good
Songwriting
Musicianship
Memorability
Production
"Entity" Track-listing:
1. None
2. Reduced Beyond the Point of Renewal
3. Grasping the Outer Hull of the Tangible
4. (em)Pathetic
5. Conjoin the Vacuous
6. An Idiosyncratic Mirage
Null Lineup:
S.S. - Vocals
D.G. - Guitars, Keyboards
Ö.S. - Guitars
H.K.F. - Bass
TMS - Drums
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