NACOM originated from Jesi, a city in Italy. They had the goal of playing some Melodic Death with Progressive influences, similar to DARK TRANQUILLITY and OPETH, which are two bands that have influenced them.

Even though the NACOM is based out of Italy, the sound on the record is decidedly Swedish, with the melodies mixed in to the riffs the only way the Swedes could have done it. The song structures are very open-ended, forgoing the typical “verse-chorus-verse-chorus” template adopted by countless bands, so the band has a good deal of riffing on the album and the songs twist and turn in small unexpected ways.

Now, even though the guitar work is extremely well done and the song structures are creative, there are a few things that bother me. For one thing, the band tries to cram as many genres and influences in each of their song as possible, and the jumps and shifts in style get distracting and makes the songs lose their focus. The other problem I have is with the balancing of the sounds. The rhythm guitars are too low, while the drums have this weird synthetic sound to them and the vocals and keyboards overpower the mix. Speaking of the keyboards…for some reason, the sound the keyboard player went for sounds like it was straight out of the 80s. It sounds VERY much like a Midi sampler than an actual instruments, and that makes the music a bit comical, but not in a good way.

Well, despite all my complaining about “My Tomb”, this little 3 song demo shows a band that can write stellar riffs, explore atypical song structures and hold my interest throughout an entire song (or most of) while mixing it up.

There is much potential in NACOM.

(Online August 8, 2008)