Last year was, let’s say it gently, disgusting for all of us but for Nervosa it was crucial: in spring 2020 Fernanda Lira and Luana Dametto leaved the band and guitarist Prika Amaral stayed alone. Nevertheless, Prika said that the band will continue to exist and despite the pandemic and lockdowns she managed to gain a new line-up. And now the time has come for the new, fourth album named Perpetual Chaos.
Nowadays Nervosa are Prika Amaral, bassist Mia Wallace (Abbath, Tom G. Warrior’s Triumph of Death, Niryth, The True Endless, Skoll), drummer Eleni Nota (Lightfold, Mask of Prospero) and vocalist Diva Satanica (Bloodhunter). Also it needs to be mentioned that Eleni from Greece, Diva from Spain and Mia from Italy, so Nervosa can be considered now as international band.
With such huge line-up change the music has also evolved: now it is more Death Metal, while Thrash components are still strong here. However, in most of songs girls combine aggressive, brutality and anger greatly, delivering mighty and evil tracks. Also I need to say a few words about Eleni Nota’s playing: this girl really impresses with her frenetic and technical drumming; it is not a surprise she is in this band now.
The opener “Venomous” with the next one “Guided By Evil” represent the aforementioned combination of Thrash and Death Metal: Prika’s rigid guitars with Eleni’s robust drums transmit the aggression and brutality, while Diva Satanica put all her anger at 2020 in her growling. However, “People Of The Abyss” and “Kings Of Domination” are Death Metal solely with all inherent components, which fall on the listener right from the start and only increasing further, without any sign of melodism. There is also a great short drum solo in “People Of The Abyss”.
Self-titled “Perpetual Chaos” has catchy and groovy riff in intro and then continues smoothly and vigorously. “Until The Very End”, which is also more Death than Thrash is a great headbanger, mostly because of drums pattern. Dynamic “Time To Fight” in its turn stands out with almost Punk verse, Thrashy chorus and quite meodic solo, which you don’t expect to hear on an album like this.
There are some guest vocalists in this album too: Schimier from Destruction and Erik “A.K.” Knutson from Flotsam and Jetsam. Schimier’s vocal can be heard in fast-paced Thrash piece “Genocidal Command” – it pretty reminds Sodom or Destruction (which is not surprising with a guest like this). Eric added some melody to another unexpected track in this album, “Rebel Soul” – suddenly almost Heavy (or rather Death) Rock-‘n’-roll with a heavy sound.
“Pursued By Judgement” is another dynamic Thrash Metal piece, quite smooth and aggressive; the drums add some variety to it. And Perpetual Chaos ends with “Under The Ruin”: it starts slow and ominous but in a minute it turns into hurricane Thrash, which reduces the tempo a little bit further, gaining some brutality. That’s the way the song goes until it ends.
But the biggest disadvantage of the album is the lack of Mia’s bass in the mix, it is almost absent or you need to make an effort to hear it. I don’t really understand how this happen: new album was produced by Martin Furia who worked also on a previous Nervosa album Downfall Of Mankind, but there everything was ok. Maybe it’s the problem of promo files I got, I don’t know, but the fact is that it is not enough bass in the album and Mia deserves more.
Anyway, Prika made almost impossible thing: again, during the pandemic she gained a new line-up and the girls recorded their new album. Well, what can I say? I take my hat off to Nervosa, they are really great! Hope, this line-up will be really stable.
Perpetual Chaos will be released on January, 22 via Napalm Records.
If you really would like to support Antichrist, you can just Share our article.
You can also support Antichrist by sending a couple bucks to cover some webhosting expenses. =>> PayPal
