Never let it be said that the Scandinavian countries are one-dimensional when it comes to music. Scandinavia is famous for the bubblegum Europop of
ABBA,
Ace of Base, and
Aqua (Europop's answer to
Spinal Tap), but the Nordic countries are also known for their abundance of intellectual jazz. And then there's the matter of extreme metal. Scandinavia has given the United States and England a serious run for their money when it comes to underground death metal and black metal -- in fact, the Nordic death metal/black metal scene has experienced total saturation in the '90s and 2000s. One of the countless death metal/black metal units that came out of Scandinavia in the early 2000s was
Ninnuam, whose debut album,
Process of Life Separation, thrives on the sort of ferocious intensity that Nordic moshers are known for.
Ninnuam seldom takes any prisoners; from Mattias Johansson's lead vocals (which combine death metal's growl with black metal's equally evil-sounding rasp) to the band's harshly effective use of density, this CD lives up to all of the stereotypes of Scandinavian death metal/black metal.
Ninnuam does include keyboards and offers some melodic passages here and there, but overall, this album isn't musical or intricate enough to be considered symphonic black metal -- ultimately,
Process of Life Separation is about sensory assault for the sake of sensory assault. Nothing distinctive occurs on this CD; there is nothing to separate
Ninnuam from numerous other bands in Scandinavia's ultracrowded death metal/black metal scene. But if pure, raw exhilaration is enough,
Ninnuam's sledgehammer attack isn't without its pleasures. Neither the best nor the worst that death metal/black metal has to offer,
Process of Life Separation is yet another decent, if limited, example of Nordic headbangers keeping things harsh, vicious, and bombastic. ~ Alex Henderson