When someone is described to you as “sounds like Fear Factory and Tool teaming up to have a barfight with Dub Trio and Allan Holdsworth whilst Rachels try to break it all up” you just know you’ve got to check them out.
I’m glad i did. This is definitely one to be categorized in the “attacking your speakers” section.
I AM Nimdok is the recording name of 24 year old Ryuki Akira. It’s a project he started back in September 2011 and it’s certainly a project that hasn’t taken long to come to real fruition. As of yesterday you can go download his debut EP “The Wave. The Raven. The Invisible Dream” for free from the I AM Nimdok bandcamp. It ticks all the right boxes for me. Instrumental. Different. Progressive. Loud. The musicianship on all 6 tracks is disturbingly flawless and is made all the more apealling by the fact that Akira plays every single key, chord and beat on the EP. Even haters of the experimental side of metal music will struggle to find a downside to the 6 tracks on show.
“Primagen” starts thing off with a stuttering beat before going all epic on us. Next up is “Staring Into Darkstar” (my favourite track) which reminds me of the days when My Vitriol were heavy as fuck. Then it’s the piano led “Endless” which could be seen as the EPs ballad if you like. “Freeland” comes over as the most operatic track with it’s strings constantly swelling and swirling. “Intro 7” literally is what it says on the tin, a soundtrack-esque intro to the closing track “7” which begins with an almost silent ambient noisescape before launching into a series of brain melting riffs and then changing into an almost trance like affair before returning to it’s crushing, behemoth riffs and rounding off an amazing debut EP which ends on a eerie note with what sounds like a ghost ship sailing off.
A month or so ago all the tracks were posted on the I AM Nimdok soundcloud page but were only available for streaming. So i, for one, am grateful to finally be able to get these little futuristic sounding musical nuggets onto my iPod. If you know what’s good for your ears you would do the same. The fact that it’s a free EP makes it 2012’s bargain of the year already.
Listen to the song below and then go download the EP.
Oh and just for the record….if it came to a bar fight then my money is on Fear Factory and Tool.
S.I.T Wolf X
Someones In The Wolf 