NEPHELIUM
Coils of Entropy (2012)
United Arab Emirates (early)/Canada (current), Self-released, Brutal Death Metal
Remember when death metal sounded like a reanimated, rotting corpse? Like something dead and dripping, with flesh-eating bacteria clinging to the bones? Nephelium plays that style of death metal – brutal, chunky, chaotic, and straight from Stygian crypts.
Coils of Entropy, the band’s first full-length, is deliciously disgusting music. Entropy is the word indeed as Coils is technical in an unchecked and disorganized way: it surges and seethes with deranged fervor, like carnivorous razor blade maggots.
Nephelium unleashes six tracks of constant pace changes, none of which are under five minutes. This results in a varied song structure of living guitar labyrinths, with purulent vocals that sound genuinely diseased. And the LEADS - its all about lengthy guitar solos, but they are never exorbitant or pretentious, or weedly at all. Instead they sound organic and varied, breaking away from the “every-second-sounds-exactly-the-same” pitfall of some brutal death metal.
For example, see “Malediction.” Even though the song clocks in at 8:44, it passes in a churning minute due to varied pacing and cryptic riffs (as well as a bit of groove.) This monster accelerates gradually, showcasing how the best of brutal death metal is not all speed and smash – this slow, organic bulldozer brings the devastation.
And the title-track (which closes the album) is a different breed of mutant. Over 10 minutes in length, the song methodically mutates in a rhythmically evolving and devolving way. In particular, check out the serpentine guitar lead at 4:40, which twists and winds with an Eastern flavor.
When you are looking for a dose of the vile, Coils of Entropy delivers 40 minutes of heart-warmingly horrid metal. As opposed to some modern technical music, Nephelium plays brutal metal that sounds densely, and most definitely, DEAD.
Rating: 9.5/10
Author: Witness to the Void
