SCHEITAN — Nemesis (review)

Album · 1999 · Death 'n' Roll

2.5/5 · 2021-05-15
lukretion

Released in 1999 via Century Media, Nemesis is the third and final full-length album of Swedish black/goth metallers Scheitan. The band started as a black metal outfit revolving around Oskar Karlsson (guitars/drums) and Pierre Törnkvist (guitars/vocals), and then slowly evolved towards a more accessible form of Death'n Roll / Gothic metal that on Nemesis reaches perhaps its most forthright and direct expression.

The album is comprised of nine tracks for an overall duration of a mere 33 minutes. The songs are short, simple and straightforward, striking a balance between boisterous death metal assault and melodic gothic metal accessibility. A fitting description of the album’s sound would be a cross between Rotting Christ (circa A Dead Poem) and Children of Bodom, minus the technical shredding. There is a touch of punkish urgency and rawness in some of the songs (“Psyched”, “Ways”) that stands in direct contrast with the more melodic gothic influences surfacing on songs like “Fury Flow” and “Black Rain”. However, the formula quickly grows stale, also because the melodic ideas, song pace, structure, and instrumental solutions the band plays with are always the same from one song to another.

There are two tracks, however, that stand out as completely different from the other seven: “A Silent Hum” and “My Isle”. These two songs feature a female vocalist, Lotta Högberg, who had also appeared on Scheitan’s previous albums. On these tracks, Scheitan abandon the boisterous Death'n Roll of the other songs and veers instead more decidedly towards goth/doom territories, reminding me of bands like Flowing Tears and The Gathering, albeit with a more primitive and rougher streak. The tempos are slower, the atmospheres become more dilated and lysergic and Lotta’s low-register vocals are dark and morose. The strong melodies of the choruses make an immediate impression on the listener and stand as an open invitation to spin these two songs again and again so as to uncover all their hidden secrets. Truth be told, these songs are two minor gothic masterpieces and the only reason I actually own this album.

However, the inclusion of these two tracks on the album is fairly incongruous, as they have almost nothing in common with the other compositions. Equally incongruous is the inclusion of the vaguely electronic album closer “Emergency”. This track is a (poor) cover version of a minor hit by 1980s Swedish pop group Trance Dance, bringing the album’s sound in yet another direction.

Overall, Nemesis comes across as a hotchpotch of disparate musical ideas that Scheitan somehow decided to assemble together in the same album. Most tracks are really derivative and forgettable, but the record does contain two killer pieces, “A Silent Hum” and “My Isle”, that elevate it just above the ordinary. It’s worth a spin or two, but approach with caution.