ALBUM REVIEW: Nucleus – Entity

Here I review the highly anticipated second album of American Death Metal mob NUCLEUS! Out today via Unspeakable Axe Records and Me Saco Un Ojo Records.

1. Arrival start off the journey with ambient cosmic synths, perfectly breaking in the Sci-Fi feel of the album before prog-fuelled bass lines drop into the mix. Roaring guitars and pummelling drums soon break through the extra-terrestrial soundscapes with doom-laden grooves that fiercely grip a you like some unknown tentacle. Massive sounding growls pierce through before we are thrown into thrashing assaults, menacing riffs and discordance that overlays the precise drums beautifully. Putrid and otherworldly, this opening song is a damn good start with truly intimidating sounds utilised gorgeously. Killer.
2. Entity continues with convulsive Death Metal barbarity, surging and meaty guitar riffs over punchy drum hits soon tale off into dissonant flares, embracing the outer realms with sheerly blistering assaults that are given some stunningly savage lead shreds to accompany the transition into ferociously odious grooves. Thunderous bass is used beautifully among the cosmic apparitions that the guitar riffing madness conjures up, while maniacal vocals and unrelenting drums keep the beat and rhythm protrusive and consistent. Wonderful.
3. Uplift grinds out more monolithic grooving instrumentals with a futuristic feel to the ferocity, macabre vocals ooze over the jarring and harsh instrumentals that have a really killer rhythm while keeping you on edge. The songwriting abilities of the band is certainly impressive with this track, much like the others, keeping a stellar volatility to it while also using primal and pounding structures to launch some traditional Death Metal decimation. Plenty of blastbeats and old school riffs keep this alien band grounded as does the shredding excellency. Brilliant.
4. Mobilisation fires in with blasting chugs and a monstrously aggressive sound is immediately conjured up with immense blastbeats and slamming guitar riffs for the vomited vocals to be spewed upon. Convulsive melodies then tie the song in with some less traditional progressions that build the cosmic atmospherics alongside adding to the mind-blowing confusion and frenzy of the album which blends nicely to some doomy work too. Musically this is so unique with great songwriting, production and execution that truly allows the bands esoteric Death Metal to flourish. Glorious.
5. Approach falls into place with some gorgeous clean guitar work, ambient in nature and really mesmerising with a cosmic flow that remains disturbing yet beautiful. Some crushing bass work creeps in followed by snapping drum hits. This song really adds a mystique to the albums already diverse soundscapes with progressive guitar leads flourishing through that lead to some intense grooves with a fantastically unpredictable nature to them. The band have not ceased to impress me with their immense songwriting prowess, this song is no exception. Magnificent.
6. Outpost jumps into strange prog work that is dissonant and unhinging before blasting out maniacally savage Death Metal brutality. The song jumps back and forth nicely with it keeping up the discordance and repugnantly crushing grooves equally well. The track keeps you on your toes with its call and response style, yet in the black abysses of nobody shall hear the call and who knows what shall respond. The blistering attack in the latter half really do hit hard. A really interesting piece, very enjoyable in a strange as hell way. Great stuff.
7. Dominion rips in with cavernous layers of guitar and drums, doomy in essence with a morbidly crawling groove backing up the mixture of haunting growls and eerie clean vocals, all of which work beautifully in unison to make some tranquil yet disturbing conjurations of purely amazing Death Metal that truly sounds inhuman and totally new yet using some classic blasting assaults which should be familiar to all fans of extremity. The variety to be found in this album and also this song alone for example is incredibly impressive. A convulsing, surging monstrosity that truly gave some astounding impact to the album. Utterly ferocious and marvellous.
8. Timechasm sadly brings in the ending to this hypnotising cosmic opus. Following the outro of the last tracks cosmic ambient instrumental work, the building guitar and drum attacks are preparing for one last onslaught of progressions, dissonance and total mayhem. The track builds nicely with eerie musicianship before vocals join the mix, a doomy final performance is given with crushing blows landing from the entire band to close this album with a forceful morbidity. A great ending with crawling grooves to lead the barbaric album out with the utmost savagery. Fabulous.

A uniquely written and ferocious endeavour into Death Metal featuring the pummelling barbarity we all know and love but mixed with some disturbing progressive features to further the cosmic soundscape of the band. With mind-blowing musicianship to back up the fantastic songwriting, this is certainly an esoteric release that should certainly be on the listen list of Death Metal fans worldwide who like to get some weird flare to their   music. -8.5/10