Saturday 11 November 2017

Nomasta - House Of The Tiger King (Album Review)


Release date: November 03rd 2017. Label: Self Released. Format: CD/DD

House Of The Tiger King - Tracklisting

1.Death Rattles 02:11
2.The Book Burners 04:37
3.Sir Impaler 03:45
4.Alchematic 05:21
5.House Of The Tiger King 04:01
6.This Trail Got The Best Of Us 03:49
7.At The Mercy Of Sleep 04:06
8.Hard As A Coffin Nail 03:36
9.Dawnbreaker 05:02

Members

Owen Wilson - Vocals/Guitar
Kris Allen - Bass/Vocals
Andy Richards - Drums

Review

Leeds Sludge/Doom Rockers - Nomasta - have been compared to bands such as Mastodon and High On Fire with the accompanying PR sheet that came with the album. And truth be told it's a fair description after listening to their debut album - House Of The Tiger King - multiple times recently. The album has a heavy hardcore punk vibe with moments of Thrash Metal, Doom Metal, Psych. Sludge and Stoner Rock that allows Nomasta to easily force the listener into submission.

The opening track – Death Rattles - is a post-doom/thrash/sludge metal onslaught with cool psychedelic sounds starting the song before the band playing a heavier and sludgier punk driven sound. The vocals come screaming in and definitely have a hardcore/heavy metal influence running throughout them. It's quite a short track lasting over two minutes but Nomasta still manage to create an action packed song that goes through a lot of different sounds and genres.

The band then go flying into action with The Book Burners and that's where the Kvelertak/High On Fire comparisons come into place. As the band move through a myriad of different sounds that makes the album sound exciting. Thrashy based Doom/Sludge guitars added with a more modern Stoner based groove. The vocals take an unexpected turn as they harness the clean harmonic energy of Mastodon but set against a much heavier progressive backdrop. This is one of the standout songs on the album with Nomasta pulling every trick out of the book as they leave you wanting to listen to this track over and over again.

Third track – Sir Impaler is what Mastodon/High On Fire would sound like if they embraced a more hardcore and psychedelic identity to their music. Though to Nomasta's credit it's the vocals that impress yet again with the mixture of hardcore growls and progressive clean style vocals meaning there is more to Nomasta's sound than the pounding riffs.

Fourth track - Alchematic - has a more alternative rock/metal feel with the vocals but it's the riffs that allows this song to be a "true" rager with equal parts melody and aggression.

Nomasta carry on creating their dynamic Sludge driven sound with great songs such as House Of The Tiger King, This Trail Got The Best Of Us, At The Mercy Of Sleep and Dawnbreaker showing how the band know how to create a lean, mean and angry sounding riff. Some people may complain that the band are maybe trying to hard including too many different genres of music into the sound. That's beside the point as Nomasta grab your attention from the start and submit you to an intense and heavy musical workout that takes no prisoners.

The musicianship shown here is nothing short of brilliant in parts. Progressive and daring in equal measures with Nomasta sounding like a heavier and thrashier version of Cave-In at times. Though this is Nomasta's show and House Of The Tiger King is an album that could see the band play to bigger crowds and audiences over the next few years.

The production is superb with the album sounding crisp and fresh from the start. I haven't seen many reviews of this album yet and that's a crying shame as this is a brilliantly entertaining and brutally heavy album that pulverize the listener into submission.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Simon at I Like Press for the promo. House Of The Tiger King is now available to buy on CD/DD now.

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