Early last year I reviewed Prismeria’s Lost Individual Thoughts EP. Nine new tracks were released in April, bundled as the album I have screaming out of my headphones as I write this – Requiem is with us.
Prismeria don’t mess around with labels and niches. They simply call themselves a “French metal band” and as such they grab from multiple influences and styles. This is demonstrated as much on a single track as it is throughout the album as a whole. Just within opener “North”, you have melodic guitars, ripcord riffing, harsh and clean vocals, neat rhythms and breakdowns.
The band did will to pick “Native Spirit” for a single / video, though. You can check out its cracking opening below (as well as the rest of it). I love the simple one-string hardcore-esque riffs, and the dual pitched vocals that surprisingly come from a single throat. Throw in some quick solos later in the track and some impressive drum fills and you have a great song, which shows the band off very well. “Bang your fucking head”, indeed.
“The Ceremony” is designed more for, as Psychostick would have it, teabagging the stage. It’s heavy. Except when it’s getting thrashy. As I said, Prismeria like to mix their styles and they do with with fluidity and skill. “Irkalla” chucks blast beats at you, “Life” shreds like a classic Annihilator number, “enger” decides you need some clean acoustic sounds and a bit of jazz in the middle because why not, “Deep Into Dementia” goes the other way with a deep bass section that makes the walls rumble, “Low Hopes of Men” is an acoustic guitar solo and it’s lovely, “The Groovy Snake” brings together The Ritual-era Testament and Lamb of God.
Every sound resolutely metal (even the jazzy break… It just works), every song a melting pot of sounds you’ve heard elsewhere. The overall result – very tasty indeed. I guess you could argue that the sound is experimental – how can you throw this many sounds together without doing it just to see if it works? If so, it’s one that’s yielded a successful result.
Requiem is out now.
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