It would be unfair to label this act screamo. Plenty of fools will do this, but Death Metal Dougman knows better. Yeah they have some the same slow breakdowns and the IRON MAIDEN-like guitar harmonies of say bands like AVENGED SEVENFOLD. What keeps them doable is the lack of cheesy emo vocals mixed with the unconvincing yelling. For starters vocalist Benny Hilleke’s style is so grating, obnoxious and over the top that it’s hard for me not to appreciate. Like the BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, it’s a mixture of black metal and death grunts. The raspiness of his black metal style is so nasty that it’s almost cartoon like. There is also a hint of Pushead's SEPTIC DEATH-like old school noisecore vocal stylings. He keeps it interesting for sure.

The lyrics are of a more political vibe not too dissimilar to NAPALM DEATH and instrumentally there seems to be a tad of CANNIBAL CORPSE in the riffage. Most of the guitar playing is spot on, but there is really nothing that makes it very unique. The bass just kind of plods through. Not much going on there either. Drummer Sebastian Helt’s skin work is quite alive (especially on the blast beasts) and some of his snare fills in a couple of these tracks almost sound quantized so perfect they sound computer generated. Strangely enough it offsets the band’s sound enough to where it sounds different and I wish there was more of it. The title track and “God Forsaken Soil” are examples of this. What NEAERA lack in overall originality on a musical level is kind of made for with power, passion and some rather sick sounding vocals. It make take another album or two for these guys to really reach their potential (or maybe just one tour with label mates APIARY).

- Herring

OFFICIAL SITE: www.neaera.com

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