Album Review: Belial – ‘Nihil Est’ EP

Belial
Nihil Est EP
(Siege Music)

Tech metal has seemed a bit, technically speaking, boring of late, with a huge crop of Meshuggah-or-Vildhjarta-influenced low-end-loving practitioners coming out of their basements and garages in swarms over the last few years. Of course, a select few have definitely risen above others, like Humanity’s Last Breath, From Sorrow to Serenity, and Exist Immortal, to name a few. But for every band that understands how to actually do something with a sphincter-spasm-inducing guitar tone, there are at least ten that waste it by not knowing how to write a damn song.

Enter in Belial out of the UK (no, not the Lucifer character from the TV show with the British accent), who know how to make tech metal devilishly fun. With a playful, actually technical style that recalls Born of Osiris (circa The Discovery), Humanity’s Last Breath, and From Sorrow to Serenity at different points, Nihil Est shows off a band not afraid to indulge their love of the bounce, the melody, and honest-to-God technical death metal insanity. This is a group who aren’t trying to hide their love of the more extreme elements of their sound, but they also don’t mind tripping out with a nice little Eastern section, like in “Eon”. It’s not all perfection, as the latter half drags a bit, especially the chug-reliant “Odium”. However, if the first three songs on Nihil Est are any indication, this is easily one of the brightest lights to come out of the UK tech metal scene in the past couple years. Generic djent this ain’t, and Belial is happy to showcase that progressive deathcore can emphasize its prog, death, and groove/core sides and shine while doing it.

Included in the release is this excellent five-song EP, instrumental versions of these songs, and the band’s original self-released EP (which shows the band wasn’t there early on but honed in on their best elements in the future).

Purchase the album here.