On one hand, the debut full length album from Switzerland’s Nucleus Torn is a fitting addition to Prophecy’s legacy of artistically exquisite, female fronted, avant garde, folk, ambient music, but at times it also awkwardly tries to be something a bit more progressively ‘metal’ or rock, and ultimately fails.

When Nihil is delivering delicate and lush acoustic (violins, cellos, etc) wonderful Irish ballad influenced opener “Glass Spirit”, “Close” or “The Sunclad” all laced with Maria D’Alessandro’s wonderfully Gaelic voice, the album envokes Tehni or Nuen Welten moments of hypnotic musical beauty. However, when Patrick Schaad takes over and the band tries to change up into more metal elements like “Traveler’s Rest”, “Summer Bled” and “Peregrine Sublime”, even though they have levels of string and acoustic backdrops of folkish charm, the more caustic, angular metal prose comes across like a cheap Arcturus rip-off, if they were more earth bound and less talented.

Nihil is apparently the first album in a trilogy to be completed by parts two and three, Knell and Andromeda Awaiting respectively, my only hope is that Nihil focus more on their far more impressive folk elements than the rather forced metal elements.

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