Bands come and go. Few of them reach the decade mark, but those who do manage that venerable milestone have generally passed through the formative years, set a solid lineup and got their sound together. Sadly, large periods of time are often lost in reorganising and replacing members and the loss of the musical chemistry this causes, sometimes years are wasted. Nexus defy that trend, as they defy all other musical convention. Each member of Nexus has been there from the formation of the band, almost ten years of working together without cessation, hiatus or retooling and it has bound them together with a singular direction and vision, and honed their skills and accumulative abilities into a single powerful entity. The four elements of Nexus have crafted together a quite amazing sound, the culmination of which is this CD, the bizarre, unpredictible, experimental and cosmic masterpiece, "The Paradise Complex".
Recorded in 2009 but sounding more like a 3009 release, Nexus's "The Paradise Complex" is comparable to generic Metal as a swordfish is comparable to a birthday cake. Even more technocratic and arcane sounding than their Co-release "Eve of Destruction", this album sounds like it was not so much written as grown in a lab by Dr Herbert West. A band of musicians with talent inching towards the superlative, Nexus takes the wisdom handed down from the earlier generations of Metal and masticates it, until it is beyond different, genre-resistant and label-retardant.
Again Nexus put me to task, trying to sort this jumble of influences and kaleidoscope of instrumental mayhem into a coherant review is a fools mission, made all the harder by my poor grasp of descriptive language. Nonetheless...
Nexus write an incredibly organic breed of Metal that flows forth in an almost primordial state of constant evolution and mutation. Melody is clearly a key ingredient, and they seem to be able to fuse this mellifluousness into even the most aggressive and mindshattering structures with a sickening ease. The melody is always there, but it is not always sweet, as Nexus stray so far outside the realms of conventional tune as to be almost amelodic at times. These melodies are not delicate or calming, rather they jar and baffle the ears, and are all too often played at a pace so fast that the notes can blur into each other, almost grinding together in their tumbling momentum. When Nexus play a bit slower and the notes emerge from the tangle, it becomes clear that there are some extremely clever melodies being played here, the opening track "Part 1 - the reckoning" fades out on just one such example of this cleverness.
The tune is not the only place where Nexus seem to want to fold space, the timing structures they work their songs around can be a mathmatical nightmare where anything is possible, nay probable. Jazzy stanzas contest with classical movements and synchopated crazy shit from other mental dimensions, and of course the extreme metal drumming powers along behind it all like a harvester powered by plutonium. Springing from structure to structure like a mountain goat on meth, Nexus pulls the listener into the story being told and beats your brain into a different mindset. It is not always comfortable to listen to or easy to follow, the juxtaposition of the constantly shifting hypermelodies and the ceaselessly destructive drumming is enough to send even the most seasoned metalhead into brain seizures.
In most bands, a certain member can be picked out as a keystone, an essential and indespensible part of the band. Not so with Nexus, the four members are all as integral and vital to the whole as each other, and it fact they have been quoted as saying that Nexus will not continue as a band if one of the four members was to leave the band. On "The Paradise Complex", they are all firing as one. Dan on the drums and vocals is (as always) an inhuman and unnatural freek of nature, but unlike the other bands he is part of, in Nexus he is unrestrained and able to do whatever his heart desires.... and what it desires is to run completely amok. He is constantly on the move, just about dancing on his stool as he surgically and strategically flogs the piss out of his kit, all the while growling his insane thoughts into the headset mike. Josh on the bass holds the beast by the scruff of the neck, alternatively keeping the songs together solidly and lashing out in his own creative flurries, ever the forgotten and humble master of his craft. And then the other two boys go to work adding their own demented guitars, and no selection of words or flowery language will ever adequately describe the guitar work on this CD, it really has to be heard to be appreciated.
"The Paradise Complex" was not written with consideration for those who like to sit by the fireplace in their smoking jackets and sip their brandy while listening to music. It was not designed for background music while trying to pick up children from school in an overheating car during peak hour. It was not designed for iceskaters to practice to, farmers to milk cows to or hippies to fuck in mud to.
This is experimental, brain damaging, thoughtful extreme metal with a journey to take you on, and before you put it on you better get yourself in the right headspace or it might just rip your head off.
Review by Jez.
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