Nephesh debut CD "Inter Armas Silent Leges" is a release that a handful of people have been vigorously anticipating, combining elements of symphonic and black metal, this will appeal to fans of Divine Symphony and other bands of the like. Funny enough, I actually pointed this band out to Jason of Nokternal Hemizphear a while back, and as soon as he heard them, he fell in love. Now finally after a long wait the release is here.
Overall, for a debut CD, I see a lot of potential in the band, it is a pretty solid debut release, although it does have its flaws. The CD starts out with this amazing intro, when I first popped the CD in and hit play, I couldnt believe that it was so good. Think Dimmu Borgir, mixing amazing orchestral pieces, and choir vocals. Next Sangre Immortal comes on, which I must say, is probably my favorite song on the CD (other than the intro). Next up we have Tormentors of Sin, which is a track im quite familiar with because it was featured on our second compilation. The keys for this song are haunting, and create a fantastic atmosphere. Skipping around a few tracks, Sentence Darkness is also a fantastic track, with a fantastic introduction, being somewhat slower at the beginning, this is also one of my favorite tracks on the CD. The "official" close of the CD, Symphony of War, is also a fantastic orchestral piece, and shows a lot potential, and assures that this band knows what they are doing.
Now as far as flaws go on this CD, I do not believe everyone will agree with me, but two of the biggest things I could point out are the vocals (clean ones too) and the guitar tone. The vocals have their moments where they sound really good, but to me, they got a little bit repediative, after a while, it starts to sound something like the vocals where done with a lot of liquid in the vocalists throat. If that makes any sense, they just sound watery. As far as the clean vocals go, all I can say is I am glad they appear very few times on the CD, and I hope they do not use any on their next release, unless they find a new (clean) vocalist. The guitars on the CD have a lot of potential in themselves, but I feel that the tone of the guitar takes away from the skill a lot.
All in all, this is an overall good release, and I think it will appeal to those who have been looking for more symphonic black metal in the Christian scene. I will be keeping a close eye on Nephesh in the future, and advise all of you to do so as well. Oh, and one thing I must comment on is the packaging, it looks fantastic! This is no underground packaging, this is professional, which makes it all the more reason to purchase!