Nehemiah The Asphyxiation Process

Slowly but surely, Uprising Records has built up a steady arsenal of essential hardcore records that are still being talked about. Among them are both 7 Angels 7 Plagues releases, both Kid Gorgeous albums, Rogue Nation’s new debut album, and on a personal note, both Vietnom releases. While proudly being hailed as the label’s first true metal outfit, Nehemiah has a long way to go before making the same kind of popular or underground impact as the aforementioned bands have. Originating in the once musically-fertile city of Minneapolis, Nehemiah are a young six-piece who have evidently been bitten by the Gothenburg bug as it nears its second and third waves of infection. What cannot be denied is that "The Asphyxiation Process" is executed with precise craft, and the superb Logic Studios production team did a great job of only allowing the most stringent final product to be sent out for mastering. Then again, that is the bare minimum requirement for an essentially new Swedish-styled metal band whose aim is to rub shoulders with other metallic groups who have deservingly risen to lead the American metal movement of the new millennium. While strictly hardcore bands can get away and even mind-bogglingly gain recognition for being under-produced, such a consequence would spell instant death in a metal world now dominated by a fast-growing list of staggering Adam Dutkiewicz studio benchmarks. Cunningly, Nehemiah avoid this pitfall, that so many overeager hardcore-based metal bands have fallen victim to, and are subsequently allowed to stay and race with the big boys. Where they will end up at the lowering of the checkered flag is a different story entirely during their first day at the races. Working in Nehemiah’s favor along with a top-notch production job are long songs in the range of five minutes, which shows (usually, at least) a certain degree of maturity; an end result they were surely aiming to achieve, despite perhaps not entirely embodying the aforementioned maturity. Working against them is a sound that blatantly takes cues at times from Darkest Hour, a band who have not yet been around long enough to be cited as a respectable influence, as great as they are and promise to be in the future, in addition to a set of vocalists whose performances cannot be considered memorable by any stretch of the imagination. Nehemiah do, however, respectfully draw influence from certain black metal bands whose sheer talent and vision has successfully prevented the type of rampant and effortless plagiarism which has completely rendered the Swedish thrash metal scene homogenous in recent years. So in the end, the fluid melding of black and Swedish influence with a heaping portion of open-chord mosh, collectively known as "The Asphyxiation Process," proves to be an above-average metal record, which shows Nehemiah to be both a confident young band and more importantly one whose best albums and ensuing fanbase are likely just around the corner. Bottom Line: Uprising Records do not sign simply any band with a guitar riff and plugs as so many record labels have wasted their money doing. So in light of the resurgence of heavy metal, especially that emanating from the hardcore scene, Nehemiah’s recent addition to their roster only reinforces the apparent commitment of the label to them, and the band has clearly made good by delivering a debut album which should certainly create a ripple or two in the world of hard music. "The Asphyxiation Process" holds much promise for the future.