Review Summary: And the winner of "Most WTF moment of 2013" is...
Power is a strong contender for “Craziest album of 2013”. And yes, before you ask, Nekrogoblikon's latest EP is just as ridiculous as the band's name would suggest. It would be rather rude to simply call the band's core style a mish-mash of standard melodic death metal, complex Sigh-esque symphonies and lyrical content that literally depends on H.P. Lovecraft's Necronomicon and goblins. But take one listen to the first minute of opening track 'Friends (in space)', and you'll be finding yourself scratching your head just trying to work out which direction
Power will sway.
As ludicrous as such accurate descriptions may be however, not everyone is going to enjoy
Power. For one thing, the vocals don't do much at all, even at the best of times (The mid-section of “Powercore” features quite a nice vocal range from keyboardist Nicholas von doom), and almost ruin the quality of each of the EP's five songs. At times the symphonic elements sound so completely and utterly silly that they could only ever fit on a sub-standard compilation based entirely on Disney movie soundtracks, and there never seems to be quite enough consistency to keep this EP from wallowing into rather unknown territory. As is the case with bands that do a similar thing to Nekrogoblikon (Every genre under the sun chucked into a melting pot and seeing what the end result is doesn't quite suit music that well in every band's case), it's just too much to put people off listening to anything the band may release in the future, or have done before.
That said, there are more serious, concrete moments, such as the ultra-heavy periods on “Powercore”, or the crazy albeit maniacal “Bells & whistles”, which has more than a hint of Sigh within its ever-changing musical styles. The band's instrumentation isn't too bad either, since both “Nothing but crickets” and closer “Giraffe” are controlled by consistently technical drum rhythms and lean, mean guitar riffs which obviously focus on melodic death metal via early Children of Bodom. Even the keyboards at times triumph over silliness and produce rather convincing melodies, such as "Powercore" and "Bells & whistles".
Power isn't quite perfect, but there's certainly enough there to keep you interested. It's hard to make sense of Nekrogoblikon, let alone settle them into one fixed genre, but with three albums under their belt and numerous festival appearances around the world, the band seem to be doing rather well for themselves. The band's latest EP is simply, then, a rather ambitious albeit slightly inconsistent release. You can listen to it, but prepare to be confused and a little disoriented.
