Another short one…
I would like to introduce you to Nomad, a band from Kortrijk, Flanders, Belgium, Europe, Mater Gaia, consisting of six pretty (and less pretty) humans with a passion for technical and extreme Music – something that is not that strange at all within the Northern hemispheres of Belgium at all. The beauties involved on this specific recording: guitar players Bjorn Holvoet and Laurens Goeminne, drummer Jason Saelens, vocalist Mathijs Soreyn, bass player Arne Vandoorne, and keyboardist David Santy.
After a period of rehearsing and performing live, these guys entered the studio to have this album finished: Oxygen, a title very relevant, for it subtracts all oxygen while listening. I was initially informed to encounter another random Metalcore-inspired band (please forgive me my “puke’n’vomit” attitude), but apparently these guys were / are not just some cheap clone of…
Nope, let’s focus on this specific release. I did listen to, and enjoy, this recording a lot. Why? Because it does trespass the limitations of, well, whatever. Oxygen indeed stands for an approach of Metalcore, with elements from Groove, Sludge and Post-Hardcore. But you know, it’s much more than just a mathematical sum of all these elements. Sometimes one plus one is more than just two, you know.
It’s not about the lyrics alone (dealing about what we are all concerned about lately, you know, daily existential struggles in our personal life as well as on an universal platform); these texts are really worth being dissected (once again: welcome the Flemish scene!). From sonic point, Nomad bring – as sort of introduced – a Metalcore-laden form of Extreme Music, yet then again with their own twist (as mentioned in the former paragraph). String-wise, there’s a certain Djent-like basement, with hyper-technical and experimental riffs, injected by spooky melodies, eerie keyboards and doomed passages. You know, this texture of Post-Metal, Sludge, Extreme Djent Groove Whatever Metal stuff … Besides, the elements of Post-Sludge, the acoustic passages, the many whatsoever additional things that pass by, are really of a unique level. And believe me if I say that these additions are a real surplus, rather than some annoying, unnecessary given. Nomad easily knows how to inject its ‘standard’ ingredients with other hot spices to make the result tasty and longing for more. Even when you’re not hungry, you will crave for another portion of nomadic finesse…
Vocal-wise, one must appreciate the balance of melodious chants and throaty shouts, with those harsh (blackened?) yells and these grandiose death grunts (cf. a piece like Opio). But this album trespasses all limitations, for Metalcore has never been this sensual before. There’s much more: different vocal timbres (from death grunts and blackened screams to spoken words), orchestral-classical passages, progressive intermezzos, injections of Post-Doom or Symphonic Doom Metal (Elevate as example, you know).
For what it’s worth, to my opinion, the diverse approach, the unique structures, the sort-of original compositional elements, or the varying chapters, besides the high-leveled performance and fine-tuned sound-quality, make this album a sensual monster of sonic pleasure. It is catchy, all right, but then again it lacks narrow-minded (and imbecilic or arrogant) stupid superficiality. It is more than chauvinism, for Nomad are an act that deserve to, well, you know… Take Sun, for instance, with its oriental elements, spacy influences and avantgarde experimentation, along with these traditional-laden riffs and sort-of-basic textures…
In it’s totality, Oxygen must be one of the most intriguing recordings within its specific scene. It contains and exhale everything that promotes and supports these sounds of technically progressed metallic elegance, balancing in between emotion and aggression, in between harmony and disturbance. Flemish majesty…