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Obliveon > Nemesis > Reviews > Bouncemetal
Obliveon - Nemesis

Revenge up and coming! - 100%

Bouncemetal, April 30th, 2023

Wow. Well, looking ahead, I should say that I consider this album to be a progressive/technical metal masterpiece, and it's also quite overlooked, so I have something to say about it. I heard of Obliveon from "From This Day Forward", their previous LP from 1990, that I really enjoyed, but it took me a while to understand this one later.

Obliveon wrote some of the songs back in 1992 before releasing the album and started expanding more their progressive death/thrash sound. "Nemesis", as well as "FTDF" isn't a 100% pure, single genre album, but it's actually heavier than its progenitor and closer to death metal. It has some thrashy and fast songs ("Obscure Mindways", "Factory Of Delusions", "Estranging Abduction"). And all in all, "Nemesis" retained a lot from the previous one.

All the same familiar vocals of Stéphane Picard, which is a growl, his unique, and quite aggressive, are present. I love the very first track, "Nemesis", an unhurried and complicated, sort of an "intro", where his growl is SICK, and seems more intense than on any other song and perfectly fits the slow and mechanical riffing.

By the way, that word "mechanical", that I have just used is a perfect definition for the guitar work on the record. The guitar sound is very memorable here and reminds me of a clock mechanism with a lot of gears, it complements a futuristic concept of Obliveon very well. The same can be said about the riffs, by Martin Gagné and Pierre Rémillard, which are simply magnificent. In structure, they do not resemble any other band of that time! Obliveon riffs aren't "purebred" death or thrash metal, they are rather prog, with all these non-standard musical solutions and jazzy chords. However, the instrumental part is completely devoid of avant-garde and constant tempo changes. In this case this is only beneficial. Riffs are uniform and appropriate, but despite that, they are quite unique and don't lose the melodic aspect (Except maybe for "Dynamo" and "Nemesis", which are concentrated firstly on a technical performance and progression).

There are actually no guitar solos as we know them, and it's a kind of Obliveon's peculiarity among other prog bands. Or rather, they are here, but not in all songs and are generally just a set of glued licks. This isn't bad, because their style just doesn't need that shred rapid virtuoso type of leads, perhaps it would not even fit the music. A perfect example is "Factory Of Delusions", that has the best "solo" out there, that contains 5 "mini-leads" played by Rémillard. Also, you won't hear any acoustic guitars on this album, maybe they didn't use them, just to maintain the songs' cold and steel atmosphere and not ruin it.

The guitars are complemented by a bass, played by vocalist Stéphane. He isn't Steve DiGiorgio or even Doug Keyser, with their complex riffs and solos. Stéphane is the band's frontman, but it's worth noting that his bass sound was always audible and played an important role. The track "Dynamo" for example, has some really cool basslines as well as "The Thinker's Lair". Another element of the rhythm section is the drummer Alain Demers. An amazing guy, who plays quite evenly, but often changes fills and the drum pattern itself, that does match the whole musical material. I would compare him to Tomas Haake from the early Meshuggah, but Alain is less groovy, more thrash-influenced and straightforward. Speaking of production, it's done pretty well, good balance, and good mixing; even if the band released the album independently, they were able to achieve that perfect clean sound.

Also would like to mention the last track "Strays Of The Soul", my favorite, has a clean guitar intro and outro, and it's definitely the best one, the most melodic, with a plenty of nice riffs.

"Nemesis" is the type of album that doesn't load the listener with long intros or acoustic digressions, but immediately throws out all the technical brilliance that four musicians have created. The lyrics, written by Stéphane immerse themselves in Sci-Fi themes and various images. Obliveon filmed a video for the song "Dynamo" and basically immortalized themselves in the history of metal. You must listen to it NOW!