Nexhymn - Black Horizon

Nexhymn - Black Horizon (Self released EP 2012)

I had a pleasure to add this band to the Metal Archives data base, which is always cool thing, to be one of the first people around the globe who got to know the band. This is Nexhymn, an US based death metal combo, which just debuted with their first MCD, “Black Horizon”. There are things, which you should know about them, before you read this review. First is that Nexhymn has been formed on the ashes of Throcult – this band has released two full length albums back in the early 00’s, so some of you may know them. And another thing, which I guess will be widely commented, is that Nexhymn has a female vocalist… who growls better than many men hehe! Of course it’s nothing new to have a female fronted death metal band. Think of Profanal for instance, a cool Italian band… Think of Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult also… Or Nuclear Death for fuck sake. Anyway, it still surprises me how great can a female growling be, hardly sounding really like a woman. Hmm, from the other hand I spent one night in the labour ward, in the hospital, a couple of years ago, waiting for my wife to deliver a baby and the screams and possessed howling that some of those pregnant women were making when in labour was something I’ll never forget. This was scarier than many black metal vocals. Pure screams of the tortured… Ha, no wonder women can do such deep and furious death metal voice.

Anyway, Nexhymn plays very American (what else), pure death metal style. Forget about any new metal influences, “Black Horizon” is pure, relentless US styled brutal death metal in its finest form. While Nexhymn is obviously very much influenced by the likes of Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Vile, Monstrosity, Malevolent Creation and other such bands (also Polish Decapitated), they luckily managed to keep their music interesting and memorable in many ways (hmm, memorable in terms of this sort of death metal of corpse!). This music is fairly technical, very brutal, but not overly complex, what I find as one of the main advantages of “Black Horizon” as this way the music is just hitting you right in the face, massacring the body and breaking every bone in it. Once Nexhymn opened the mCD with “Decaying Monument”, there’s no stop and it all seems like a furious beast, which someone unleashed in frenzy of blood and meat. Get ready to be blasted with ferocious drumming, killer riffs and deep growling. Plus the production on this EP is really good, so in the end I can tell you that there’s nothing else I could desire from Nexhymn. I like how energetic, how aggressive this material is. Great! And with only six songs, lasting about 20 minutes, there’s enough material to crush you and not as much to feel bored, so definitely “Black Horizon” is perfect in that sense.

Final rate: 75/100