With recent releases by Maroon, Heaven Shall Burn and Caliban, Germany seems to be a hotbed for harder edged metal bands as of late. Not only does Neaera share the same geographical home as the aforementioned bands, it seems like they were also bred on the same Swedish death metal influences. The quintet’s venomous brand of Gothenburg-weaned metal has earned them a spot on Metal Blade’s roster. Armamentarium is the band’s third full-length and it marks a huge step up for them in the songwriting department. From the opening death rattles of “Spearheading the Spawn,” it’s easy to see they’ve refined their attack to a far more streamlined, yet effective approach. Where their earlier arrangements were cluttered with too many riffs within a song, the material here benefits from the new, leaner technique.

With their piercing but always precise riffing, the twin-guitar team of Tobias Buck and Stefan Keller took me by surprise! Their guitar work here is merciless and certainly speedy but they somehow maintain a refreshing amount of melody making them memorable. Benny Hilleke’s vocals bring to mind Tomas Lindberg’s work in At The Gates in both clarity and pure brute. His coarse barking on the title track showcases a man coming unhinged. All this said, the band isn’t going to win points for originality but with a set of songs this realized, it is hard to deny their power.

Rating: 7/10
Label: Metal Blade Records
Website: www.myspace.com/Neaera

by Carlos Ramirez

Rate this review:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 8:18 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

fuckin_tatters wrote:

yea these guys own some ass this cd by them is stellar to say the least

March 2nd, 2008 at 3:32 pm

Make a Comment

Name:

E-Mail Address:

Website:

Comment: