Sweden has traditionally been known for churning out melodic-death
metal bands, as well as a few better known black metal bands. However, not
since Entombed released Wolverine Blues has a Swedish death metal band
made a dent in the country's metal scene. Nominon does not quite make
a dent, but it certainly gives the listener something to
digest.
Recremation is only Nominon's second actual album since they formed in
1993, not counting the EPs and numerous demos. For a band that
features current and former members of bands such as Marduk, the expectations
are not nearly as high as one would think. The low expectations seem
to help to a degree becuase a lot of Nominon's music is death metal with
some hints of black metal. The vocals are not bad because they range
from the usual cookie monster style vocals associated with death metal
to the lower screams of black metal. Both are done okay, with niether
really dominating the proceedings. The music itself is mostly
unrelenting, with parts of songs taking on a black metal feel in terms of
atmosphere. The song that best exemplifies this ideal is Mirror of Dead
Flesh, which provides an aura of black metal without the cheesy keyboards
and overdone vocals. All of what is on the album is done without any
fancy bells or whistles, which will not help the band stand out from any
other death metal band, but it will not do anything to hurt the band
either. The artwork, while done in black and white, does more to create
an image into the listener's mind than most other bands without the use
of blood and guts.
Nominon will never be mentioned in the same breath as Six Feet Under or
Cannibal Corpse and that seems to be okay with the band. Recremation
is more of a death metal album with black metal leanings, as the song
titles suggest, and with a little more time together, maybe the band will
come out with more proper full lengths instead of numerous EPs and
demos. Nominon stays true to what they want to do, which is more than what
can be said of some of the bigger death metal acts today.
