Shade Empire- Zero Nexus
Whoa, this is strange, Progressive industrial black metal? They must be putting something in the water in Kuopio, Finland as Shade Empire are a bit of a musical oddity. They seem to mix a number of styles making hard to predict where they will go next.
From first impressions, you expect opener 9 in 1 to be more harsh black metal but it Shade Empire manage to twist and manipulate it into melodic metal. Dimmu Borgir with melodic breaks would be maybe the best comparison I could make. The more track you get though, the more you realise how much Shade Empire want to be Dimmu Borgir, damn and I thought that this was going to be something really original. However, that does not mean that Zero Nexus is a bad release, by all means I really enjoyed listening to this album. I found that it captured my imagination. This is some face blasting, pummelling metal with atmospheric synth and black and death metal styled vocals.
Standout Track Flesh Relinquished is a veritable rollercoaster of seething atmospherics and blistering riffage! I get a real Dethklok feeling from Shade Empire and that can never be a bad thing, they are the biggest band in the world! Overall, I would say that Zero Nexus is well worth a listen, a thought provoking piece of work that will lead the way.