CoC : Nicodemus - The Supernatural Omnibus : Review

Nicodemus - _The Supernatural Omnibus_
(Dark Symphonies, 2003)
by: Pedro Azevedo (3 out of 10)

Although the name David Penprase was unfamiliar to me before I received this Nicodemus CD, I must say I was quite impressed by the cover art he put together for Nicodemus. Unfortunately, from that point on it was downhill all the way for _The Supernatural Omnibus_ -- and I'm not just referring to the fact that the rest of the layout is ridiculously poor in comparison. In brief, Nicodemus sound like a more gothic / power metallic version of Cradle of Filth... on Valium. In particular, on "Shards of a Bitter Night Wept" they reach such an involuntary level of Cradle of Filth caricature that the Brits would surely be seriously offended if they heard it. Throughout the album, the male and female clean vocals are just average, while the black vocals sound so cartoonish I can scarcely believe my ears. The extremely bland guitar work, coupled with decent but over-melodic keyboards, fail to compensate for any of that. Worst of all in _The Supernatural Omnibus_ is the way Nicodemus fail so miserably when they try to sound heavy. It is only on slower sections (namely on "Harlot"), with less of their pseudo-heavy guitar and vocals, that Nicodemus rise above utter mediocrity. Unfortunately, such passages are few during the album's excruciating hour of length and far from enough to save it from a disastrous result.

Contact: http://www.nicodemus.us

(article published 21/3/2003)

ALBUMS
13/3/2001	A Bromley	5	Nicodemus - Tales of the Lovelorn & Necromantic