NettleCarrier – NettleCarrier

NettleCarrier
NettleCarrier
Released: 21^st September, 2012
Black Metal
Released via Indie Recordings

With this album being NettleCarrier’s first full length album, they did a fantastic job at incorporating all the appropriate black metal elements into their music. The slow but heavy riffs paired with raspy, high-pitched screams made their music seemed ambient in a way but still fast enough to headbang to. However, as good as this album was, there was nothing that really stuck out to me as unique. It sounds like the same kind of black metal that has been made for years now. Not that there’s anything wrong with the way the album sounds, but it sounds just like everything else.

There are only seven songs on the self-titled album, each similar in length, quality, and delivery. After a while I felt like the entire album was just one, long song, and I could not differentiate between each one except for the few seconds of silence from when the tracks transitioned. If the tempo of a couple of the songs were sped up or slowed down even more just to give the album some variation, it would have been a lot more memorable and much easier to listen to.

Fans of black metal can definitely depict where this band has gained their influences from if they listen to the album carefully. The vocals, to me, sound very similar to Nattefrost [Carpathian Forest] and the instrumental composition of the album also sounds like Carpathian Forest paired with Marduk. Again, while this album was not poorly produced or written, it was just not memorable to me at all. Other than that, I thought the album as a whole sounded very well written and thought out, and I give this band credit for this being their first full length album. Hopefully their next album will have some differentiation to it and will sound a bit more personable rather than a carbon copy of all the other black metal that is out there today.

3.7/5

Lauren Gowdy

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