Modern metal doesn’t get much more creative than on Maskhera’s sophomore album ‘Nemesis‘. And I don’t just mean in Venezuela. Although the band is mostly known for its groovy post-thrash metal sound, that style doesn’t come with the amount of ambition Maskhera shows here. The songs on the album are extremely dynamic, almost to the point of them being somewhat progressive, but ‘Nemesis’ isn’t primarily about complexity. Instead, the album is full of excellent melodies, catchy vocal arrangements, and most of all, a vast arsenal of intense, delightfully aggressive riffs, all combined into songs of which no two sound alike.

The main reason why I hesitate to call Maskhera’s music groove metal, especially on ‘Nemesis’, is the fact that the overall tempo on the album is considerably higher than one would expect with that moniker. The overall production and the vocal styles by guitarists Walter Gangi – a gruff hardcore-esque bark – and Jeff Sánchez – slightly more melodic, but still very aggressive – fit the modern American metal sound, but the riffs have the unbridled aggression much more common in thrash metal, and there are some distinct Scandinavian melodeath-isms in the guitar and drum department as well.

In the end, what makes an album like ‘Nemesis’ work as well as it does is the quality of its songwriting. The worst albums in this style of metal sound like a monotonous collection of generic riffs, with most of the songs being stuck in a similar mid-tempo rut. ‘Nemesis’ is quite the contrary of that. Every song has a certain hook to draw the listener, many of them multiple, and they never sound like the hooks of a different song on the album. More often than not, those hooks are in the guitar harmonies, though the choruses are generally very memorable.

While the intensity on ‘Nemesis’ is very high overall, Maskhera really managed to squeeze a lot of dynamic opportunities out of the material. The album veers back and forth between the annihilating hardcore-isms of ‘No Hay Marcha Atrás’ and the kick in the teeth that is the main section of ‘Iskander’ to more epic moments, such as the title track that builds from a Maiden-esque intro to a surprisingly melancholic finale without sacrificing any aggression. ‘Lucharemos Hasta el Final’ is the perfect choice to open the album, as it presents the ‘Nemesis’ sound in a relatively concise and supremely catchy package.

Sure, there are plenty of instances of articles on this site criticizing the state of modern metal, but that is mainly because the bands subjected to this criticism don’t possess the creativity and the sheer riff quality of Maskhera. The band relocated to Colombia not long after the release of ‘Nemesis’ and hopefully that will give them more opportunities to present their material to an international audience, because honestly, Maskhera’s sound has the potential to appeal to anyone who likes their metal aggressive, yet surprisingly carefully crafted.

Recommended tracks: ‘Lucharemos Hasta el Final’, ‘Nemesis’, ‘Juntos Somos Más’