Time Signature Dance of the burning guitars...

Genre: doom-death

A neat little EP, "Alpha" is the very first release by the Texan death-doom act Nethermost. It features four tracks which are of medium length and should appeal to fans of melancholic doom metal.

Falling within the same style of death-doom that Paradise Lost pioneered several years ago, Nethermost base their songs on a combination of simplistic chord-based rhythm guitars with haunting melodic lead guitars on top, delivered by the band's lead guitarist Cinthya Rocha. The constantly driving lead guitars give the music a level layer of crestfallenness which obviously suit the overall sound of the EP. The music never gets really heavy and slow, but the guitar melodies definitely add a a sense of doom and gloom, and they generate the entrancing effect that characterizes good dom metal. Moreover, the melodic leads create an important to contrast to the monotony of the growled vocals (as you may know, I tend to prefer melodc and clean vocals with doom metal).

The production is a bit fuzzy, but not at all to the extent that it ruins the listening experience. The bass is apparently programmed, which is a shame, and it is not very prominent in the mix either, which is also a shame. A big fat bass, organically plaied by a human would be preferable, and I hope that the Texan doomsters will hire a bassist in the future.

Dark and melancholic, Nethermost's "Alpha" is a solid doomdeath album which is definitely worth investing in if you are into melodic doom-death. There is definitely a lot of potential there, and it will be interesting to see what the future brings Nethermost.