Nemesea – The Quiet Resistance

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Nemesea’s background is a familiar story. The band released their debut Mana to a certain degree of acclaim, certainly keeping to a style and sound familiar to fans of fellow countrymen Epica or After Forever, but well liked regardless. Then came the divisive In Control, an album that was derided by a large percentage of existing fans for its dramatic style shift away from gothic/symphonic towards more commercially friendly alternative rock, closer to successful mainstream acts like Evanescence. There’s been some hope and speculation that the band’s debut for gothic metal powerhouse Napalm Records would see a shift back to Mana territory, but The Quiet Resistance (despite suggestions otherwise) is firmly founded in the same style of In Control. The album is middle of the road, routine and unexciting alternative rock thinly masquerading as gothic metal. It takes leads from Evanescence, maybe even other latter nu-metal acts like Linkin Park, rather than more gothic, symphonic or metal cues. The result is rather bland, made only worse by Nemesea’s desire to sound ‘innovative’ by employing frilly extras that would have sounded dated ten years ago, let alone now. There’s some Rammstein impersonating on Allein (literally – they hired a singer from a Rammstein tribute band), an entirely drum’n'bass track in 2012 and the desperately unnecessary inclusion of turntable scratching on nu-metal track It’s Over. Manda Ophuis’s vocal delivery also continues to leave a lot to be desired, able to hit the right notes but simply lacking any kind of character in this particular style – though to be fair, guest Charlotte Wessels of Delain sounds characterless too when she guests on High Enough, despite usually doing well elsewhere. There’s some okay songs amongst all this – Rush‘s chorus fits the song name rather well – but overall this really isn’t the return to form that a lot of people were hoping for, nor does it really improve on their last album’s flaws.

Written by James Donovan
More: 2011, Albums, Alternative, Female-fronted, Quick.Play Reviews, Nemesea