NICODEMUS

Second full-length album by American Progressive/Gothic Metal band.
While many bands these days prefer showing half-naked vampiric vixens on their cover arts, Nicodemus went for an artsy and beautiful cover of a lady holding a book and gazing to the ground.
On the music, Nicodemus could be classified as Progressive Gothic Black Metal. The album starts with "Something In the Walls" a catchy song that have some good keyboards that resemble bells, "Nightfall Bares My Burden" is another good track, begins with some clean singing and nice piano lines. "Afterglow" has good vocal effects in all the song, "Harlot" shows us the slower part of the band, its fun if you look this song as a Black Metal ballad, if there's something like that. "The Lazarus Syndrome" is an excellent instrumental song, the riffing, the soloing and the keyboards intertwine perfectly to make this incredible piece.
Roughly, music similar to Gothic Death bands like Tristiana or Trail Of Tears, but less experimentally weird and more Dark than Gloomy, if that makes sense. The primary instruments here are guitar and keyboards (mostly piano), sometimes with an almost Power Metal riff approach. The songs are all mid-paced or slow, but not the insufferable slow that largely passes for Doom these days. At its best moments, as on "Afterglow", "Harlot" and "Deepening", this album is both moody and catchy.
There are both clean and harsh vocals on this CD. The harsh are provided by mainman Chris Morris and are an almost Black Metal rasp. One Tamar Yvonne provides the female vocals and when she gets to sing, she sounds fine, but she isn’t on the album all that much, mostly singing background stuff. Morris also sings clean.
The production here is a bit rough. The whole does create a very dark atmosphere without the self-pity this kind of music so often wallows in. This is an album that grows on you with each listen, as each time you will hear some cool little part you missed before.
Nicodemus have talent, some compositions have fresh ideas. This is a solid Gothic/Death release with more melody than gloom, and it shows a lot of potential!
Dark Symphonies, 2003 (DARK 21). Made in USA. First press.


Tracklist:
1. Something in the Walls 05:33 
2. Nightfall Bares My Burden 06:21 
3. Harlot 07:32 
4. Afterglow 06:08 
5. The Lazarus Syndrome 01:07 
6. Of Pride & Necessity 04:58 
7. Within the Glow of Embers 08:08 
8. Deepening 05:49 
9. Shards of a Bitter Night Wept 05:53 
10. Benedetto Sia 07:07
Total playing time: 58:43