REVIEW: Nemesis Complex – Enemy

Love your enemies... hate your friends

New Jersey's Nemesis Complex provide 13 blistering tracks here on 'Enemy'. Harking back to the classics of grindcore (Napalm Death and  Agothocles getting the nod) Nemesis Complex produce one hellacious, assaulting lo-fi grind sound, shrouded in blastbeats and reeking of disdain for the clear, polished grindcore being served up by their contemporaries.

If Insect Warfare had a bastard child, this might well be it. Rough, razor sharp and unrelenting, this 4-piece knows how to turn and twist a  song on it's head... with some standout choke sections, thrashtastic riffing and pummeling grind assaults mixed amongst some slightly more  death-metal moments before once again swallowing you whole in it's frenetic blastbeat worship, all in a 40 second cut.

Album opener 'Viral Interception' leads us in with some noise and feedback before being enveloped in a wall of sound, and as the longest track on 'Enemy' (clocking in at 1:35), you have a fairly good idea as to how the rest of the tracks will pan out.  Standouts for me include the thrashing on Self Segregation and Replicant's tremolo attack. And there is an Assück cover (Civilization Comes / Civilization Goes) whereby Nemesis Complex tilt their hats to the aging grinders...  interestingly, this same song was covered by Cellgraft (from Tampa, Florida) who also fly the flag for true grindcore in the lo-fi vein, and share a lot of similarities with Nemesis Complex.

I'm enjoying this revival of primitive, noisy grindcore, and if you do too, then I recommend you get yourself a copy of 'Enemy'. Simply head along to http://nemesiscomplexnj.blogspot.com where the guys have made 'Enemy' available for free download.