Sarissa
Nemesis
Rock Of Angels Records
2016
Sarissa are a weird enough case; they’ve been going on and off since 1985 or so with a couple, of almost five year long hiatuses between each of their albums. The did receive great acclaim for their eponymous 1987 demo and their also eponymous debut that came in 1994 and caused quite a stir with its primordial and epic style. Their 2004 return with “Masters of Sins”… promised a lot, but failed to deliver on that promise, with both edited songs (ie “Deathdance” > “Envious Critics”) and a production that by that time sounded both weak and dated despite the nice enough performances.
“Nemesis”, which comes a full twelve years later, reunites the long standing guitarist, bassist & programmer Jimmy Selalmazidis with the original “Demo” singer, George Hatzisimeonidis, who seems to be in pretty good vocal condition some 29 years (!) after that release and making up the numbers, by introducing a couple of new entries to the rather long list of musicians who’ve served in the band, Orestis Nalmpantis (best known from a local extreme death band) and Stelios Sioulas on drums.
The problem with “Nemesis” is not the performances, as they were always quite good…. in fact they still are. The songs too, seem to be quite polished in most cases, with engaging choruses, nice melodies, muscular riffing and pretty epic atmosphere. My only problem is the production. Done at a home studio and probably mixed by the band themselves, there’s sufficient clarity and a decent amount of dynamics but not the right amount of punch (with the drums suffering a bit soundwise) and presence in the mix, thus significantly dragging down the effort. Which is a pity, because Sarissa has been a consistently delivering band, in the style of classic metal with epic overtones, able to combine Accept and Priest influences, which combine with some classic epic metal bands influences (think bit of Omen, Maiden and a bit of Warlord maybe even Jag Panzer of old)
If you can overlook the dated production a bit, “Nemesis” is a fantastic album, full of great melodies and memorable songs (all nine of them). Well done!
“Nemesis”, which comes a full twelve years later, reunites the long standing guitarist, bassist & programmer Jimmy Selalmazidis with the original “Demo” singer, George Hatzisimeonidis, who seems to be in pretty good vocal condition some 29 years (!) after that release and making up the numbers, by introducing a couple of new entries to the rather long list of musicians who’ve served in the band, Orestis Nalmpantis (best known from a local extreme death band) and Stelios Sioulas on drums.
The problem with “Nemesis” is not the performances, as they were always quite good…. in fact they still are. The songs too, seem to be quite polished in most cases, with engaging choruses, nice melodies, muscular riffing and pretty epic atmosphere. My only problem is the production. Done at a home studio and probably mixed by the band themselves, there’s sufficient clarity and a decent amount of dynamics but not the right amount of punch (with the drums suffering a bit soundwise) and presence in the mix, thus significantly dragging down the effort. Which is a pity, because Sarissa has been a consistently delivering band, in the style of classic metal with epic overtones, able to combine Accept and Priest influences, which combine with some classic epic metal bands influences (think bit of Omen, Maiden and a bit of Warlord maybe even Jag Panzer of old)
If you can overlook the dated production a bit, “Nemesis” is a fantastic album, full of great melodies and memorable songs (all nine of them). Well done!