"Knell" is already the firth album of the Swiss combo Nucleus Torn. Maybe that you don't know them yet, actually that's not a shame since that this band plays a music which is totally underground but I hope that you'll fix this little mistake because "Knell" is a really original album and it deserves all your attention.
"Knell" is synonym to great originality and great personality. Nucleus Torn is an atypical band and their last release will not be different of their previous releases… To sum up, "Knell" is a nice mix of Doom, Progressive music, Folk, Metal and Classical music. It's not really easy for me to describe the music of this combo; it's so original that's impossible to be compared to other bands. This is really dark music, the ambiances on the album are oppressing and disturbing and even if "Knell" is not a band which plays some kind of Funeral Doom and even if the acoustic instruments and folk ambiances give a "beautiful" side to the music, this is really sad and nasty… I like the fact that the songs can be soft (but always dark), with angelical voices, cello, flute and can turn into Metal. This is a bit disturbing but cool and since that the songs are all really long (four songs for fifty six minutes of music…), complex with a lot of breaks, that's maybe a bit hard to understand them sometime but if you're into progressive stuff, it shouldn't be a big problem for you.
As you can understand "Knell" is not an easy of access album but some passages, especially the folk ones are really cool and touching and I think that it will be good for all the fans of Folk Metal but don't worry all the ones who like Doom will have some stuff for them too… The performance of the musicians is exceptional and with a perfect production and such cold ambiances be sure that you'll get shivers. No really "Knell" is a surprising album and I recommend it to all the open-minded metalheads, sure that's maybe not pure Metal but you'll like for sure some ingredient of this musical recipe.
"Knell" is a real UFO! It's hard nowadays to listen to such original music. Ok maybe that it's a bit elitist on a side and not so easy of access but it's well done and the crossover between all these musical genres is perfectly done. If you like Metal, Rock, Progressive and Classical music or Folk, I think that you can enjoy the music of Nucleus Torn. Listen to the album before that you buy it because it's special but if you like intelligent music, you'll love "Knell"!
Songs / Tracks Listing
1. I (8:04)
2. II (14:30)
3. III (29:14)
4. IV (4:16)
Total Time 56:06
Line-up / Musicians
- Frey Schnyder / multi instruments
- Patrick Schaad / vocals
- Maria D'Alessandro / vocals
- Rebecca Hagmann / cello
- Cristoph Steiner / percussion
- Christine Schüpbach-Käser / violin
- Anouk Hiedl / flute
