Short Reviews [Ni - 2017 - "Pantophobie"]

It does not take a lot to get me confused, but with two albums from Ni one would imagine they were the same band, especially as they are both inhabiting the RIO space, but no. Both bands have been in existence for a number of years, both releasing albums, yet they are not connected at all and actually come from different countries, with this Ni hailing from France. I must admit to loving the description of these guys on their label’s website where it says, “The big bad Ni has left the linear roads of the French department of Ain – from which it came – in order to live in a complex world paced by electrical sounds and varying polyrhythms. In its temple, shouts of the quartet make the windows crack, a stunning nervousness makes the walls stand and, finally, the strong foundations remove from ages to come all doubts regarding the durability of all these things. Inside, it is always like a squall: children run in all directions and parents dance around the bonfire. The waltz, the 4/4-time signature and verse and chorus structures take one last breath before being burned to ashes at the core of this fire.” Here we have a group who are taking experimental and RIO and melding this with mathcore in a way which means there are times when they are quite heavy indeed, and while never really moving into the realms of the likes of Protest The Hero are definitely heading in that direction. It is unusual to hear this style of music being played with such an obvious appreciation for metal, and some of the riffs being deployed are definitely very different to many of their contemporaries. It is certainly experimental and again vocals are only used sparingly, with the album being instrumental apart from the odd scream and over the top vocals here and there. One imagines that in a concert environment these guys get very heavy indeed, and while the musical strands do make one think of the likes of King Crimson at times, there are also plenty of far heavier and over the top moments which makes one realise these guys are metalheads at heart. It may actually be too heavy for those who enjoy their experimental music to be rather less metallic, but for me this is a real delight.