New label Radicate Records’ first signed band Nemecyst have recently released their debut work, an EP titled Our Burdens Will Bury Us.
The first of the four tracks is their debut single and music video, Through Blind Eyes. It opens with a thundering guitar riff, and a ten second long unclean scream. The skilful guitar continues through the first verse, where a strong, clear vocal is heard from lead singer James Bartolini. This song keeps up a heavy drum beat throughout, which accompanied with the fast- paced, impressive guitar, and mix of clean and unclean vocals, creates a very strong metalcore feel.
The next song, Place Your Bets, again opens with an impressively fast guitar riff and drum beat. Bartolini experiments with pitch in this song, moving towards the higher end of the scale in comparison to the first song. His unclean vocals take on an almost reptilian sound, which really compliments the style of guitar and drum playing. Drummer Blair Hutcheson is certainly fond of his double bass pedals, which allows for a faced paced, heavy song. Towards the end though, it does become softer, with a gentle instrumental interlude, allowing the listener a break from the heavier material previously heard. It shows versatility in the band’s skill, as they are able to play both soft, gentle instrumentals, as well as their usual metalcore style.
As usual, the third track has an intimidatingly impressive intro. This song consists mostly of unclean vocals, which vary in pitch, with little interludes of clean vocals during the choruses. It also contains an amazing solo/ breakdown, to get a crowd moshing. This song does have a little something for everyone though, as like in track 2, it has a slower, gentler section towards the end of the song.
Our Burdens Will Bury Us closes with the track Pulling Me Under. Rather than having a guitar based opening, this song opens with a drum intro, which allows for the drummer to display his skills. After about 40 seconds, the vocals start, with a mixture of clean and unclean, as usual. This is a good song to end the EP with as it isn’t as thunderingly heavy as the other songs, so closes it well.
The band have a similar style to Trivium, and Protest the Hero musically, and Alter Bridge, and Soundgarden vocally, which makes for a good, interesting mix. They are a talented band, able to bring a solid metalcore sound, combined with vocals almost melodic in style. Our Burdens Will Bury Us is a good EP, and a great start to what could be a very nice career for Nemecyst. They are worth looking out for.
7/10
