False Reality

At first glance, Nemesis may appear as just another one of those generic thrash revival bands, doing the same thing with the genre that hundreds of other equally generic bands have done since every thrasher and their mother figured out that "nostalgia" can cover up lack of originality. And while Nemesis is far from the most trailblazing new band in the thrash scene, they are certainly not generic. False Reality is a good example of how to tastefully appropriate 80s thrash metal to the 2020s. It gives you the feeling of "Oh, this sounds like an old-school thrash band traveled to the future," rather than "Holy shit, another one of these unoriginal modern thrashers." It is possible to make a sound that's been done to death feel new again - Power Trip did it with crossover thrash, and they did it well. Nemesis, of course, is no Power Trip, but that does not mean they can't offer anything. Quite the opposite, actually.

Every track on this record is pretty solid and doesn't really throw you for any loops. You know what you're getting - an old school thrash metal assault! Yet while the record isn't bearing many surprises, there are some in store. The interlude of "Dusk 'Til Dawn" is a nice touch, leading you into the closing track, "Escape," a damn good way to end the album. The breakdown on Ceasefire is absolutely amazing, and I would go as far to say that it is one of the highlights of the record. All tracks (save for "Dusk 'Til Dawn", if we would count it) lie roughly within the 4-5 minute range, and none of them feel that stretched out. The best tracks on this album, in my opinion, are "Slave To Mistakes", "Ceasefire", "State Of Pain", and "Escape".

The guitar work and drumming is more or less what you would expect from a thrash album. Nothing too special here, but that doesn't mean it is unworthy of praise. I did enjoy the riffs throughout the album - definitely feels straight out of the 80s, so it's right in place with the other components of False Reality. The solos were good as well, my favorite being on "Escape". Nemesis' guitarists can really shred and their solos are well-embedded in the songs instead of being a tool to show off with.

As good as False Reality is, it does have a few shortcomings. Nick Broussard's vocals aren't excellent and sometimes take away from the listening experience. It's not horrible, but it just doesn't click with me at times. While every track is solid, some tracks like "Captive Hell" and "N.T.H" don't necessarily measure up to some of the better offerings on this record. And the vocal delivery on the title track verses is, to put it in simpler terms, kind of lame. I know I pushed Nick around a little here on the vocal front, but I don't mean any disrespect to him. He did a fine job on this album. But the biggest critique I have is that while the album is solid, it's not one that I personally would revisit very often. Since I heard it for the first time when it came out last year, I haven't revisited it much. It is, first and foremost, just a good time rather than an album which I would regularly throw on versus, say, Sodom's Agent Orange or Sadus' A Vision Of Misery.

Overall, Nemesis delivers a good record without deviating too much from the thrash formula. But hey, Nemesis weren't trying to do something new, never claimed otherwise, never tried to be a carbon copy of another specific band, and through that acceptance, found a way to make their sound their own. And that's why they produced a good record, mostly because of those last two parts. A lot of bands (like Mourning High and Interceptor) try too hard to be another specific band. Nemesis did not try to be Metallica or Megadeth to a T - they simply tried to play in the style of a thrash metal band from the 80s, not a the style of a SPECIFIC thrash metal band from the 80s. False Reality may not be the hot new thing in thrash metal, but it sure is a blazer from start to finish. And when all is said and done, what more can a thrasher ask for?