8

Half Way There

Brandishing an album cover that boasts an illustration of a dark haired little girl uncannily like the one that crawls out of the well in Hollywood's 'The Ring'; it is clear from the start that Assailant are trying to stamp out their musical preference from the start - this isn't going to be the bright and breezy pop that gains heavy rotation on local radio stations, Assailant are all about rock, and the louder the better. But then what do you really expect from a band that hail from the northern town of Umea in Sweden, a town that has spawned rock metal bands like Nocturnal Rites, Persuader and Naglfer? It was never really going to be an album of pop hits.

'Nemesis Within' sets the ball rolling with 'Lies', breaking loose from the start with a barrage of seething guitars and drum beats that get quicker and more powerful with every hit. Throw in some anger-fuelled vocals and suddenly the whole package of Assailant emerges. Creating what their press release describes as a "wall of sound", Assailant are able to produce music that embodies the essence of heavy rock, that can rage and roar and yet still manages to maintain a melodic clarity. Peder Sundquist's voice initially conveys a contained aggression that pushes Assailant's songs up into the heavy rock bracket but also allows them to be strangely tuneful. Coupled with this is the fact that they brandish a sing along quality, particularly on 'Edge of Forever', 'Until The End' and 'Eternal'. They maybe contrived around a thrash base but Assailant's melodies and accessibility makes them appealingly tuneful and soon you are singing along, if only to the chorus.

With the good comes the bad though and Nemesis Within soon becomes an album of two halves and Assailant start to sound like every other band trying to find an inroad into the metal market. Towards the end of Nemesis Within, Peder Sundquist seems to have come to the conclusion that the only way to compete with Assailant's "wall of sound" is to scream and wail until his vocal chords look like they've been shredded by broken glass. Gone is his aggressively melodic roughness, replaced by what becomes a distracting scream-athon. Things start to really turn with 'Mental State' with vocals that scream and growl incessantly until they drone into almost a whine and from this point on the rest of the album regretfully follows suit.

For half an album Assailant demonstrate mass potential. Finger defyingly complex guitar riffs rage against speed breaking drumming and both are pulled together by Sundquist's melodic anger tinged vocals. Then things change. 'Nemesis Within' starts to sound like every other metal album and Assailant lose their spark and edge that could see them stand out from the other acts trying to elbow their way into the ever competitive Swedish metal scene. At this stage, Assailant appear to be only half way there.