NOMAD – Transmigration of Consciousness
- by Peter Loftus
- Posted on 10-12-2011
Five albums in and progressive death-metallers Nomad are still relatively unknown outside their native Poland. This seems strange, especially considering that one of their two guitarists Seth plays second guitar live with Behemoth (you may have seen him on the incredible ‘Evangelika’ DVD). One can imagine hopes are high in the Nomad camp that ‘Transmigration of Consciousness’ will finally bring them to a wider audience.
Much like Pestilence’s ‘Testimony of the Ancients’ each song on this release is preceded by a short instrumental intro. I normally hate this kind of thing, as it quickly becomes repetitive and generally has little influence on how well the tracks work, so the best I can say for the approach here is that it doesn’t interfere with proceedings too much.
Musically, Nomad are an original act, but in a limited sense. By that I mean that their sound is well thought out, sophisticated and distinctive without being earth-shatteringly new. The end result is chugging, churning death metal that winds in on itself like a maelstrom creating darkly hypnotic, tribal grooves.
Each song is crafted to fit firmly into the vibe that they have formulated, and this is both the best and worst thing about this album. The best, because it means nothing breaks the mesmeric effect that Nomad strive for and the worst because it means that there is very little variety and the dynamic range isn’t wide enough.
This is a pity because once again, Nomad might remain under most people’s radar, and they deserve better than that.