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By RYAN MAVITY
“I feel fragile,” Nahemah frontman Pablo Egido screams about halfway through The Second Philosophy, the outstanding new album from this Spanish quintet. On the evidence this album provides, he won’t be feeling that way for long.
By the way, you read that right. Nahemah is from that land of bullfights, Barcelona and Don Flamenco. Much like their counterparts in Scandinavia, Nahemah’s sound reflects where they are from. But in this case, the sound is colorful, alive and vibrant.
That’s not to say they aren’t heavy. Nahemah rocks as loud and hard as anyone. What differentiates them from the pack is that they take chances, experiment and they make it work because right from the opener, “Siamese,” they create their own signature sound. What is that sound you ask? Imagine if Faith No More was molested by the Deftones (Around the Fur era, mind you) and then was raised by Daylight Dies and you get the idea. The band throws everything in the world at the listener: growling vocals, dancing guitar licks, weird synthesizers, sax solos and orchestral arrangements. But unlike, say Cassius, who tried a similar tactic, this band works for me because it manages to tap into some sort of melancholic chord while keeping me consistently surprised by what wacko direction they are going to go next.
After starting with the blistering “Siamese” (which would have been right at home on Angel Dust), the band starts to emerge into its progressive, melancholy take on metal. Egido, while not quite possessing Mike Patton’s vocal range, still brings his own skills to the table. His voice is a throaty growl, which seems to come out of hell for the first few tracks. But then he switches up and goes to a more conventional style on two of the album’s best tracks, “Subterranean Airports” and “Today Sunshine Ain’t the Same”. Another strength is the guitar work of Miguel Palazon and Roberto Marco, which swirls and buzzes all over the place. The band also displays nice vocal interplay on “Killing My Architect” and “Labyrinthine Straight Ways”.
The Second Philosophy is a heavy, adventurous and rewarding album. This is one of the most promising new bands on the metal scene today. |
