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Dawnbringer, "Nucleus"
Dawnbringer is Chris Black, a contemporary metal musician who writes and produces all of his own material and performs most of it on record. His fourth full-length album is superb, finding inspiration in traditional heavy metal forms and injecting them with Black's own character and creativity.
Dawnbringer's previous albums skew toward black metal, and Nucleus is a departure. The majority of its songs are littered with classic thrash metal and NWOBHM signifiers (think prime-era Iron Maiden, Metallica and Slayer): a welcome influence and starting point. While traditional heavy metal is the album's backbone, there are several songs that take clear-cut inspiration from black metal, including album highlight "The Devil," and there are acoustic, folk-based interludes and breaks scattered throughout the record. Nucleus doesn't sound tied to a particular era—at times it sounds like it could have been released 25 years ago, and at others it sounds undeniably modern.
The enjoyment I find in Nucleus is the way it digests familiar influences—classic thrash and British heavy metal, along with modern black metal—and subsequently turns out nine songs that are well-written, catchy and distinctive. The musicianship is top-notch throughout the album. In particular, the guitar attack stands out: not a minute goes by without a riff, hook or searing solo that captures my attention and enthralls me. The rhythm section provides a solid foundation for the guitars, taut and forceful, but doesn't overpower them. The production sounds crisp, three-dimensional, and unreliant on studio effects, such that Nucleus might as well have been recorded live.
If Nucleus has an Achilles' heel, however slight, I think it's the vocals. Chris Black is an everyman—he holds his ground and is not off-putting, yet doesn't lay down a distinctive performance the way metal's best vocalists can. Granted, this may be to his credit—I get the sense he would prefer the music take center stage. Black's lyrics suit the music well: never written lazily, but sticking with topics familiar to metal, often regarding spiritual beings (devils, ghosts, wizards) or huge, immovable forces (death, dreams, earthquakes, night, the sea).
Most of these songs run together seamlessly on disc, forming suites of tracks that play well in sequence. Fast, intense songs are sequenced alongside others content to rise and fall slowly: for example, the first three tracks play as a single suite, culminating in "The Devil," which then segues into the acoustic-flourished "Cataract" and groovy, slow-burning "Like an Earthquake." This lends Nucleus a strong sense of cohesiveness.
Nucleus sounds like a great rock album should—memorable and hooky at times, intense at others, well-sequenced, and with great songwriting and musicianship throughout. As a fan of classic heavy metal, I've enjoyed hearing Dawnbringer mold influences into a powerful, thrilling album of its own.
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