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Self-professed Mesopotamian black metal combo Melechesh - originally based in the metal unfriendly environs of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, Israel who later relocated to the more secular Amsterdam, the Netherlands and recently France and Germany - has always been one of the more interesting of the original second wave bands. Together with Orphaned Land they were among the earliest to combine underground death/black metal with Middle Eastern instrumentation and Arabic folk music. Their legend and repute grew considerably in the second half of the nineties as they fled Israel under mouting pressure from strict religious authorities resulting from the release of their controversial domestically bred debut “As Jerusalem Burns... Al'Intisar”. Since their 1996 debut Melechesh has released three albums on French imprint Osmose Productions and two on the considerably bigger Nuclear Blast Records. Suffice to say Melechesh has an interesting history and oeuvre to say the least. This is where “Ghouls of Nineveh” double-disc comes in…

Thanks to the wonders of international licensing and distribution rights as well as the fine people at Napalm Records and their partners Nippon Phonogram there’s now a compilation for the casual fan who wants to whet his/her appetite as to what Ashmedi and his rotating cast of musicians have been up in the past almost quarter of a century. “Ghouls of Nineveh” is a Japanese-exclusive double-disc career retrospective spanning all of the Melechesh discography, bar “As Jerusalem Burns... Al'Intisar” and the prior demo. Interestingly there’s but a single track from 2001’s “Dijnn”, four tracks from “Sphynx” (2003) and almost the entirety of “Emissaries” (2006). The remainder of content for both discs is culled from “The Epigenesis” (2010) and “Enki” (2015) or the more widely known, far better produced recent releases on German conglomerate Nuclear Blast Records. The lack of inclusion of tracks from the band’s 1996 debut “As Jerusalem Burns... Al'Intisar” and the accompanying demo “As Jerusalem Burns...” from a year earlier is insulting to say the least. That there’s but a single track from “Djinn” but almost the entirety of “Emissaries” is another puzzling decision. Space that could’ve been put to better use by evening out selections from each album instead of what was done here. It is understandable, at least from a sonoric point of view, but as a historic document (what compilations should strive to be) it is a major point of contention. To dispense with the obvious, “Ghouls of Nineveh” covers most of the ground you’d want of a compilation and as such it is more than representative for Melechesh as a whole.

To their everlasting credit Melechesh always was more of an Ancient Rites than a Nile. Melechesh is more concerned with conveying a Middle Eastern atmosphere than with playing at an inhumanly fast pace and/or being technical just for its own sake. The band evolved from Ashmedi's earlier, short-lived death metal solo project Crushed Cenotaph. Upon release of the  “As Jerusalem Burns...” demo and their debut a year later Melechesh were charged with “dark cultish” activity by religious law enforcement officials of the Holy Cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, all of which were later dropped. While considered Israeli the members are in fact of mixed descent, most prominently Armenian-Assyrian, Assyrian, and Arabian-Syrian. Central to the band’s lyrics are Mesopotamian and Sumerian history, antiquity and mythology and “The Epigenesis” is an exception in that regard as it concerns the titular concept derived from Greek philosophers Aristotle (in his Historia Animalium) and Plato. Melechesh has overcome many hurdles and countered every prejudice/bias that any band in their part of the world might face.

Where Nile has downsized its Egyptian component considerably over the last decade, Melechesh has done the opposite and worked diligently to integrate as much ethnic instrumentation and Arabian folk music as its genre of choice would allow. Along with Orphaned Land, Melechesh has been one of the pillars of Middle Eastern metal and their output has consistently been one of quality over volume. Where Melechesh has made the most obvious strides forward is in fusing ethnic instrumentation and Middle Eastern folk melodies with their patented stomping melodic black/thrash metal. What Melechesh unlike, say, Nile benefits tremendously from is their more deliberate choice of tempo. Not that Melechesh ever had any shortage of able skinsmen. Whether it’s Saro Orfali, Proscriptor McGovern, Yuri Rinkel, or Samuel Santiago behind the kit.

Melechesh always allowed its songs to breathe and neither of their drummers had the proclivity to fill every second of every song with needlessly elaborate fills or double-bass blasts. Something of which George Kollias, Derek Roddy and several others are prone to, often to the detriment of the songs. It’s puzzling why “Ghouls Of Nineveh” capitalizes so heavily on the band’s Nuclear Blast Records repertoire when their releases on Osmose Productions and Breath Of Night Records are considerably harder to come by, and even moreso in Asia. Why then that this double-disc compromises for the most part of cuts from “Emissaries”, “The Epigenesis” and “Enki” is anybody’s guess. As a historical document “Ghouls Of Nineveh” blunders by not evenly distributing its track selection among the albums.

Of course the question of legitimacy looms toweringly over this double-disc. “Ghouls Of Nineveh” was released by Austria's Napalm Records in cooperation with Nippon Phonogram. Perhaps it has something to do with international licensing laws since all of the band’s major releases were issued through France’s black metal specialist imprint Osmose Productions and Germany’s Nuclear Blast Records. Had this compilation been curated in cooperation with Ashmedi and his bandmates surely the song selection would have been more even-handed. For the most part “Ghouls Of Nineveh” is a missed opportunity. It’s representative enough for most of the Melechesh discography, but the focus on the band’s recent output isn’t necessarily to its advantage. Obviously there are far worse compilations out there – and Melechesh is the last band to be accused of milking its fanbase for money.

How exactly this compilation came into existence, or what motivation was behind it besides good old-fashioned greed, is anyone’s guess. There are no indications that Melechesh has terminated its long-standing contract with Nuclear Blast Records, nor does the artwork chosen for this compilation reflect any of the band’s usual aesthetics and imagery, other than pillaging promo material publicly available from the albums it selects material from. Melechesh is in no hurry to acknowledge the existence of “Ghouls Of Nineveh” – and neither do the usual music databases. There’s definitely an audience for a band-approved Melechesh compilation. The purveyors of true Assyrian black metal deserve better than this. This might be interesting for the casual fan, but that's all positive that can be said about it.

Nervosa now is probably more popular than they ever been before. Nervosa are to the 2010s what Sepultura were to the 1980s and 90s. Brazil’s biggest and most popular mainstream metal export. It would be folly to expect them to do things differently on their third album. “Downfall Of Mankind”, like “Agony” before it, is straightforward, high-octane thrash metal with little in the way of nuance or even variation. Three albums in and Nervosa still shows no signs of evolving beyond the basics that “Victim Of Yourself” laid out four years prior. Those hoping for an evolutionary jump the same way their once-popular forebears experienced between “Morbid Visions” and “Schizophrenia” to finally arrive at “Arise” better look elsewhere. “Downfall Of Mankind” confirms every fear that “Agony” only alluded to. Nervosa is slowly but surely becoming a victim of its own rampant popularity and they show limited growth within the confines of their revivalist thrash sound.

‘Kill the Silence’, the lead single for this record, lays out pretty much everything you need to know about “Downfall Of Mankind”. While Fernanda Lira’s vocals are probably at their most raspingly evil, and her rumbling plucked bass guitar licks are funky as ever; Prika Amaral on the other hand has apparently reached her limits as a songwriter. “Downfall Of Mankind” is, in a trait that is either admirable or unfortunate, exactly the same record that “Agony” or “Victim Of Yourself” was. Nothing more, nothing less. Not even Luana Dametto, one of Brazil’s most promising young drummers and the force behind death metal band Apophizys, is able to elevate Amaral’s songwriting to the next level. “Downfall Of Mankind” is, for the lack of a better term, reliable and efficient. Which doesn’t mean that it offers up a great deal of variety or replayability. In fact, it doesn’t. Which is sort of the problem. Dametto clearly is the most technically proficient skinswoman Nervosa has yet been able to rope in. Yet we can’t shake the impression that Luana would be better served in a band as, say, Malevolent Creation. What is also becoming increasingly evident is that Nervosa is in dire need of a second guitarist. Amaral currently performs both the rhythm - and lead sections leaving not a whole lot of room for her playing to evolve. Even that other popular Brazilian export Krisiun managed to overcome that particular shortcoming in the studio. As of now Nervosa is clearly stuck in a creative rut. An efficient, fun one – but a rut all the same.

The ladies also seem under the mistaken impression that quantity equals quality. It does not. It never does. Outside of a completely superfluous and very unnecessary intro (aptly called ‘Intro’ to avoid all possible confusion), the regular edition of “Downfall Of Mankind” consists of 13 tracks, with the special editions adding ‘Selfish Battle’ as a bonus. Instead of picking the 9 or 10 of the best songs and releasing the remainder of the session as an EP, once again there’s an abundance of very similar sounding material present. ‘Never Forget, Never Repeat’ is probably the meanest Nervosa has sounded at this point and it allows Dametto to flex her muscles and show her stamina. “Downfall Of Mankind” possesses a greater vocal presence from Amaral and her deeper register vocals beautifully offset Lira’s serpentine rasps. ‘…And Justice For Whom?’ and ‘No Mercy’ are the closest the trio has ever come to classic Slayer territory. ‘Kill the Silence’ was chosen as lead single for a reason and it perfectly summarizes the record. More than ever before does Lira’s bass playing mirror that of Cannibal Corpse’s own Alex Webster in tone and delivery. Amaral’s leads are probably at their most scorching on this record, but none of them tend to be very memorable despite their explosive brevity and fieriness. "Downfall Of Mankind" remains criminally underdeveloped in its ideas and while intense in a very straightforward and superficial manner, it doesn't possess an inch of the innate musicality and muscle of Metallica's youthful "Kill Em All".  Expecting a band to show growth eight years after forming isn’t too much to ask, is it?

The Hugo Silva artwork is emblemic of Nervosa as a band. At this point in time you’d reasonably expect them to finally sport that long pined after Ed Repka, Dan Seagrave, or Eliran Kantor canvas. There’s certainly nothing to complain about on the production end of things. Lira's bass tone sounds nearly identical to that of Webster on Cannibal Corpse's "The Bleeding". The quandary lies in the fact that “Downfall Of Mankind” simultaneously meets expectations as well as falling short of them for the exact same reasons. Nervosa is a painfully, frustratingly limited band as far as their songwriting is concerned. Even with Dametto behind the kit the average tempo does not change. There are no sudden bursts of speed, neither are there any great diversions into more compositionally dense or more structured material. No. Nervosa plows forward in a pretty straightforward manner with simply structured songs that never build on any of the ideas they have. Those hoping to hear them write their own ‘Welcome Home (Sanitarium)’, ‘At Dawn They Sleep’, or ‘Dead Embryonic Cells’ will be left sorely disappointed indeed. Nervosa in 2018 is identical to that of 2010. It almost makes you question whether these ladies are truly worth all the accolades they have been getting these past eight years.

That “Downfall Of Mankind” is everything you’d expect it to be is admirable in a way. Nervosa has proven to be very reliable in what they do, but their assault is starting to wear thin. Nervosa has yet to show any kind of compositional growth. “Downfall Of Mankind” sounds just like “Agony” two years before and that sounded just like “Victim Of Yourself”, itself but a mere extention of their “2012” demo (later re-released as “Time Of Death” upon signing to Napalm Records). How we’d love Nervosa to up the ante and go that extra mile to add a layer of sophistication to their compositions. There’s no contesting that Amaral, Lira and Dametto can play, the problem is that their songwriting tends to be one-dimensional and doesn’t offer up a great deal of variation. As with past records most songs tend to blur together with only few offering some respite, usually songs chosen as singles. “Downfall Of Mankind” is no different in that regard. It’s more of the same and it lives entirely up to expectations if that’s what you expect and nothing more. Those hoping to get something more out of the record than a serviceable whipping of crunchily produced, energetic revivalist thrash metal will be left with their hunger. “Schizophrenia” or “Arise” this most certainly is not. And that’s a pity because these ladies certainly have the chops to write something far more engrossing. This is not that album, and that’s perfectly alright. In two years from now, maybe? We'll see.