Here at the Send Me Your Ears studio, we’ve been listening to Nasmore’s latest single, Welcome To The Hell. We previously reviewed Canadian artist, Nasmore, with their single When Will I Learn – a classy display of quality musicianship, so we were very excited to see their name at the top of the reviews pile this morning.
For Welcome To The Hell, Nasmore has teamed up with Neil Taylor and La Strange to create a dark, dystopian, industrial-sounding track which really gets under your skin. We were delighted with the creativity of this track.
Starting with a female voice whispering, the song feels dark and foreboding. There’s a touch of Enya in the vocal here – or perhaps what Enya might sound like if she decided to create a rock song!
When the male vocals come in, they feel distant. The voice serves to add to the dissonance and uncomfortable feeling that the dynamic soundscape is creating. There’s some superb use of panning here and the percussion and deep bass and Welcome To The Hell takes on a Pink Floyd feel. This is highly creative stuff!!
Female vocals wail non-lyrics at times, creating an even more Pink Floyd-like picture, and we love the use of sections within the song. By the time you reach the chorus, the vocals are layered and blending beautifully. The chorus is catchy and a real earworm – this is a song which will stick with you.
There are some really interesting drum patterns and percussions within the song, with a very industrial feel. Welcome To The Hell makes great use of combining lo-fi electronic drums with a real kit to separate out sections. Overall, the track has a real Scandinavian metal feel to it. There are moments we were reminded of Within Temptation as well.
The Steve Vai-like guitar solo is to die for, and with the female vocals “wailing” over the top of it, this creates an exciting crescendo which leads back into the chorus.
Whether this song is your thing or not (and it is most definitely ours), you simply have to listen to the end: a cat meow! We don’t know why, but it brought a wonderful touch of humour to an otherwise dark and dystopian serious song.
Ideas from our ears
A hi-pass filter at 40Hz and an additional cut around 50Hz would balance out the low end nicely and remove some unnecessary rumble in the sub-bass area. A careful cut around 200Hz would reduce a slight peak in the snare drum when it comes in too. As always, these are just some ideas from our ears.
Final thoughts
Welcome To The Hell is the second release we’ve reviewed from Nasmore and shows remarkable versatility and creativity. An intense and anthemic song which we 100% recommend.