Nominon - The Cleansing

 

NOMINON - The Cleansing (DEATHGASM - LP 2012)

Oh, the waiting is over, new album from Nominon has arrived. Surely those Swedish motherfuckers have gained a lot of my respect for the music they’ve been delivering through the last 15 years, I already collected quite much of it on vinyl, so even if “The Cleansing” is only the fifth full length album of Nominon, it feels like we’re dealing here with old veterans already (who they probably are, if you think that Perra Karlsson played already with Suffer, Altar, In Aeternum, etc) and surely the time went fuck knows how quickly since I’ve been bulldozered by the awesome “Recremation” LP for the first time. Surely it may be due to the fact that Nominon in the time between the previous LP “Monumentomb” and “The Cleansing” did not waste any opportunity and time, releasing three split 7”EPs and one which they did not share with anybody. So they were always there, but the hunger for the new album was strong, especially after “Manifestation of Black”, which was just a KILLER EP!!!! At the same time I can say that “Monumentomb” was not my favourite album, so I hoped that the new effort will be better than this.

Believe my words, “The Cleansing” doesn’t disappoint. Already after I’ve listened to the first couple of songs I felt like this is going to be my favourite release from Nominon. What a strong opening, what a great power and energy is coming out of the speakers, what a fuckin mayhem. It is fast, it is relentless, it feels like you’ve been under the unstoppable fire in the battlefield. This music is so vicious and brutal and what’s more, it has more black metal influence that one would ever dare to expect from Nominon. But I love it. Sincerely, I fuckin do. I knew after “Manifestation of Black” that this EP will be a great proclamation for that Nominon will take no slaves and will really crush everything with the next full length album. And I’m so glad that they didn’t disappoint; what’s more I think they even surpassed my expectation, because – as I already mentioned – not even in my darkest dreams I hoped for such a merciless, fast, malevolent and crushing death metal piece.

“Mausoleum”, as far as I’m concerned, is the song, which I liked most and which really blew my head off instantly. I love everything about this track, but surely I must also point out the riffing in its ending part, where it gets very black metalish – I love it anyway! The atmosphere in it is just supreme, so are the riffs and everything else. This is just a MASTERPIECE of metal of death! Another exceptionally killer tunes would be the LP only "Slaughter the Imposter" (with great old Morbid Angel atmosphere all the way through), “Obliteration” and “Son of Doom”… but on the whole album I can really feel such an incredible passion and a constant stream of lethal energy and violence… there’s no bad song here, no dull moment, everything is perfected and as far as I’m concerned this is complete, perfect record. Even the instrumental title track has its place in the whole and shreds to pieces. Hell, did I already write in another review that Coffin Text’s “The Tomb of Infinite Ritual” is my death metal album of the decade? Now I don’t know what to think hehe!

One thing, which makes hell of a lot of difference between this and all the previous Nominon albums are the vocals. Henke Skoog, who joined the band right after “Monumentomb” was released, is a beast and I really, really like all his vocals. He’s using his throat with no compromise, screaming like possessed, in almost black metal way, but that fits the music perfectly, as in the end it only adds the fuel to the fire and makes the music even more merciless and morbid. Oh, I really wonder now, how would “Monumentomb” sound like with him, instead of with Erik Sahlström, who was the main guest vocalist on that LP. Hmm, obviously it is a bit useless to say “what would happen if…”, as it belongs already to the past, but who knows? Henke Skoog fits Nominon perfectly and that’s the fact. He’s a perfect choice for the current style of this band and I – as a fan - can only applause that choice. And will definitely have to check Eviscerated one day, if only Blood Harvest ever manage to release their vinyl. And that Inverted Cross demo also tempts me incredibly now…

Then the production… did I already mention how great is the sound of “The Cleansing”? It really is powerful as hell, with great, brutal guitar tone and fantastic drumming… Here every fast part sounds like it was about to dismember you and every slower bit is to crush you to the bone. And that artwork of Juanjo Castellano… Absolutely breathtaking! So creepy, so morbid, malevolent and memorable. That vinyl should come together with huge poster of that artwork for fuck sake! So, you see that I absolutely see disadvantages of “The Cleansing”; perfect death metal record.

Standout tracks: “Mausoleum”, "Slaughter the Imposter", “Obliteration”, “Son of Doom”

Final rate: 95/100