Nasheim - "Undergång" demo tape
(Intolerant records)
"Nasheim", the most promising newcomer band in the metal scene,... I only came across these ambitious guys from the north of Sweden by coincidence and I had no idea what to expect from their demo, which only contains 3 songs. But I must say, it really knocked me off of my feet! I really hadn`t expected so much restrained energy. The titles of the 3 tracks, which are sung in Swedish language, are "Ändlös flykt från tiden", "Allt svartnar", "Undergång" and the demo is self-produced.
The first piece begins in a totally bombastic way with a firework-like display of drumsound, and the background is imprinted with mystical-like sounds and a bank of guitars. After this impression has been built up like a wall and after it has died down again after several seconds of bombardement , the even/ongoing singing starts with a medium, rather suffering and raw-sounding voice (it sounds as if somebody is really willing to ruin his voice for the sake of music). While the guitars are chasing along and continuing to build a wall in the background, the vocals become more energetic. Sometimes the dark atmosphere is interrupted by extraordinary breaks (I say extraordinary, because then suddenly for some moments a certain quietness takes over , which is unusual for Metal, and the sounds of instruments can be heared , which at times are even reminiscent of rain.... that is to say the sort of rain you find in the deepest darkest night.... as well as some other "lovely" sounds), after which right away the mighty wall is built up again, and this sweeps the listener away with a current of guitars.
The second song "Allt svartnar" starts right away without any hesitation... a deep, pulsing, threatening bass-sounding, guitars that pull you along, and then after a while an equally chasing sound of drums. The interesting thing about this song is, that there`s a kind of a two-way-conversation. On the one hand there`s the voice of the vocalist , which comes across as shrill and somehow here mean as well, and on the other hand there`s a female voice, which actually only screams (shrill singing). Now it would be good to know, what the lyrics are about, but one day I´d like to ask the guys from the cold north of Sweden themselves in an interview about this. Although I understand some swedish, when it comes to BM-like-vocal-screaming, it is not possible to understand it German, nor English or Swedish either for that matter. The song gets more and more intense and gigantic after a short break, until (after a grand climax) it collapses again.
The 3. song "Undergång" is the ultimate. It begins in an absolutely fiery manner. The bass is deep and the vocals are as raw and creeping as they can possibly be. The guitars chase after this in such a virtuous depressing way, that you feel drawn into a spiral of absurdity and fascination at the same time.
This is absolutely exactly how creative metal music should be. In this manner the song comes slowly and steadily to an end, and allows the listener unfortunately to come back to reality once more. With such a high standard of material it really is a great pity that the demo is so short. The cover in black and white deserves full praise, as do the great band-logo and the fact that the whole cover inlay is written in rune-letters. Anyone who is unable to decipher them, will miss the content of what the band is saying and to whom they are speaking to (well... okay... you can read it in normal scripting on their website > www.nasheim.tk... but that`s just haft the fun).
So, if at all possible, make sure you get hold of the original demo. But anyway, whether you´ve got the original or not, make quite sure you listen to it!!
For a demo-band it`s an absolute masterpiece.