Inferno

After a couple years being active in the Dutch club circuit Nuclear Devastation finally put out their debut full length Inferno. For a while now these dudes were pretty much one of the most promising bands out there with their brand of raging blackened crust/thrash. I do not want to say that they are cashing in on their promise quite yet however.

What we have here is an album that is pretty much 40% crust, 40% black metal and about 20% thrash. Unlike most metallic crust the crust here is not derived from Amebix or Sacrilege but instead takes more from bands such as DooM, Black Uniforms and modern black/crust bands such as Young and in the Way or Iskra. The black metal parts are not as easy to pin point. Just think of general Scandinavian black metal that is on the melodic side. The thrash parts are even vaguer and kinda meld in with the crust parts but they are there if you pay close attention. On their older releases this band were more overtly thrash but took a clear turn for both black metal and crust on this debut. The thrash influence however lingers in the sense that they are playing the crust riffs at higher tempos than you'd see otherwise. I want to say that they mix these different styles quite well and in a fairly distinct way too. Most of the black/crust bands of recent years sound more like black metal played with a punk attitude and don't feature as many actual full blown crust riffs as on here.

Ideas are not the problem on this album. I want to say that the biggest problem of this record is that some of the ideas don't seem fully realized. The riffs don't get driven home enough there are several parts on the album which just don't seem to last long enough or don't quite feel build up in the right way. A good example of the latter is the final part of Abandon All Hope they wrote something very close to an absolute killer breakdown but it just falls short of crushing and instead just stays at “Hey this is a cool part.” level. The problem with the songwriting not being quite up to par also is reflected in the flow of the album. For example the last song just kind of drifts past in a very pleasant manner but then you expect at least one more crushing song or an epic closer. Instead it's the end of the album and you are just sitting there thinking “wait that is it?” in a slightly confused manner. In a way this album has some ideas that are better than albums that I would consider better overall but because they just are not executed in the right manner it falls short of those better albums.

The mix puts emphasis on the black metal parts of the album and makes the crust riffs drown out a bit. The crust riffs themselves also lack some of the bad ass feel the more melodic black metal riffs do have. Otherwise the album sounds pretty much great in all other aspects. Although I have to say that I've seen the drummer play with other acts he seems to play quite restrained on this record. I recommend everyone seeing this dude destroy his kit when hes playing with Sick of Stupidy or Gewoon Fucking Raggen.

I don't want to call this album a missed opportunity as at the end of the day its still quite decent but the song writing isn't quite developed enough to unleash all the ideas in full potential. Compared to the demos this album does show growth and makes it clear that they've developed a style of their own. Maybe with their next album they will cash in on their promise and deliver an absolutely killer record as I do feel that they've got that potential. I am definitely looking forward to seeing them trying to accomplish this.