Vena are newcomers to an already much populated world, that of sludge, post metal and whatever you call those bands. The fact is that I welcome them with their personal approach and innovation in the field, which happens not too much in structures or instrumentation or even on using weird scales but rather in the mood. Starting with: there’s no growling here. All right, that’s not so rare, but the fact that the vocals are done beautifully by a talented girl, resulting in a shoegazy clean soothing effect, is.
Ah, beautiful and soothing, two words I tend to use when writing about music. You may think it’s my limited vocabulary, I prefer to think it’s just the music I dig more and more. But there’s something more to it, as I rarely listen to happy music or whatever that doesn’t reach deep into the inside side of things. And this has that. You could say it is touching. It also features emotions such as desolation, desperation and kind ofanguish, in a delightful manner. So yes, it fits my standards so far.
Also, I’m not much into those post metal kind of things that comprise lots of growls and very heavy riffs. Mostly because of the kind of growls used. I have not many problems with Neurosis, Cult of Luna or more rare and original bands like Latitudes. And Nomadic fetures also that heavy kind of riffs, overwhelming atmospheres. Some oppresive melodies that weirdly become part of oneself, that kind of suffering one enjoys the most. Of course it sounds more shoegaze sometimes, more post-rock, soft metal-slowcore oriented. But still metal and heavy (but not as in heavy metal – that’s good, too).
I’m also fan of the saying: what’s good and short, two times good, and Nomadic also delivers there. Four songs, twenty-four minutes, and they even manage to leave me wanting at least a bit more. Well, this is an ep, so I’ll be looking forward to some full length. You should be, too.