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Album Reviews : Nucleust – Terra Cerebral

By on July 20, 2017

These Perth lads slam out pissed-off, impactful groove-based thrash metal. Whilst purist thrash metal is kinda tired and passé these days, bands still farming this type of musical field must inject some progressiveness into their thrash to make it interesting, and Nucleust do precisely that.

In fact, they do the ‘progressive thrash’ thing as well as just about anyone right now, and this, their debut album will hopefully show this to the world. In fact, Terra Cerebral is a very appropriate title for this album, for it is earthy and organic in its progressiveness and very much metal music for the mind at the same time.

Opening with the combatively angry and rhythmically twisted Lullaby Paranoia, and closing with the magnificently ambitious and, yes, symphonic Symphony of Revenge, this album is a highly adventurous and extremely aggressive journey. And that aggression is tempered in sweet and subtle ways with the injection of occasional melodic vocals in amongst Shannon Marston’s throat-thrashing howls and some more dynamic and melodic soundscapes.

Best track award, alongside Symphony of Revenge, goes to Of Man and Tree. It’s actually good to hear a big, fat, straight-ahead groove in amongst all the warped timings, but even then they crank up the interest by running an almost oriental-style riff over the top of it, and it works a treat. These guys are bold and adventurous and know exactly what they’re doing, and this is always a disarmingly enjoyable trait.

Musicianship is razor-sharp, the members striking a wonderful balance between playing for the song whilst displaying their technical chops when appropriate, and the production is clear, powerful and very real.

These guys have excelled themselves on their debut long-player, and I look forward to seeing what they come up with next, and to watching their career unfold.

Band: Nucleust
Album: Terra Cerebral
Year: 2017
Genre: Technical/progressive thrash
Label:  Rockpit Records
Origin: Australia

About

Rod Whitfield is a Melbourne-based writer and retired musician who has been writing about music since 1995. He has worked for Team Rock, Beat Magazine, themusic.com.au, Heavy Mag, Mixdown, The Metal Forge, Metal Obsession and many others. He has written and published his memoirs of his life and times in the music biz, and also writes books, screenplays, short stories, blogs and more.